President Donald Trump escalated pressure on Senate Republicans to pass the Sunshine Protection Act, targeting US Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas for stalling the legislation. Al Jazeera called the number listed in Trump’s post, but an automated message stated the voicemail box was full.
Truth Social Pressure Campaign Targets Senate Leadership
The political standoff intensified over the weekend as Trump directed his supporters to contact Cotton directly. “Call Tom on his cellphone,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, appending a phone number featuring an Arkansas area code, The Guardian called and was greeted with a message from the service carrier saying, “The wireless customer you are calling is unavailable.” When reporters from The Associated Press and The Guardian dialed the listed digits, automated carrier messages indicated that the wireless customer was unavailable and that the voicemail box was full.
The maneuver mirrored a familiar political tactic from Trump’s 2016 presidential primary campaign, during which he publicly shared the phone number of then-Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina following a political disagreement. Cotton, who chairs the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, did not immediately respond to requests for comment regarding the leaked number or the legislative standoff.
Legislative Stalemates and Historical Precedents
The Sunshine Protection Act cleared the House of Representatives in July by a decisive 308-117 vote, but the legislation has encountered severe roadblocks in the Senate. Cotton defended his opposition in a statement shared on social media, arguing that permanent daylight saving time would plunge winter mornings into severe darkness. “No one likes changing the clock, me included, but Congress has enacted permanent Daylight Savings Time multiple times before and repealed it each time once Americans experienced absurdly late sunrises in the winter,” Cotton wrote, The Hill reported. The Arkansas Republican added that children would be forced to commute to school in the pitch dark, citing the economic and logistical fallout of the short-lived 1974 federal experiment with year-round daylight saving time.
Trump swiftly countered those safety and logistical arguments, asserting that the reform would grant citizens an extra hour of afternoon daylight and reduce evening crime rates by keeping streets illuminated. The president also highlighted commercial endorsements, citing a supporting letter from PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp, who argued that professional golf tournaments require extended afternoon sunlight to complete rounds.
Outlook in the Upper Chamber Before the Midterms
Despite public frustration with the biannual time adjustments—reflected in polling indicating that only 12 percent of American adults favor the current system—Senate leadership has shown little appetite to take up the measure before upcoming electoral deadlines. US senators departed Washington without scheduling a floor vote prior to the November 3 midterm elections.
Weighing in on the prospects of the bill, Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana offered a blunt assessment to Reuters, declaring the legislation “dead as disco” and noting that Senate Republican Leader John Thune was unlikely to bring the measure to the floor before polling day.
