Trump urges calls to cellphone of Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton in battle over permanent daylight saving time bill

President Trump on Saturday pressured Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas to support a bill to make daylight saving time permanent, urging Americans to call what appeared to be the personal cellphone number of Cotton, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee.

The Sunshine Protection Act passed the House in July in a 308 to 117 vote. Mr. Trump called the passage of the bill "Great News for America!" at the time.

The bill still faces roadblocks in the Senate, where some Republicans are strongly opposed. Proponents, including the White House, argue that the change would provide more daylight during the times that Americans are most active. 

Detractors said permanent daylight saving time would lead to darker and potentially more hazardous winter mornings when children will be waiting for school buses and parents will be driving to work in darkness. 

The president has changed his position on the issue throughout the years. Mr. Trump has called both for daylight saving time to be eliminated and for it to be made permanent.

Daylight saving time is the period between spring and fall when clocks in most parts of the United States are set one hour ahead of standard time. Not all states observe it — and under the bill, states can opt out of the change if their respective legislatures act to do so before the bill's enactment.

"For some reason, Tom is stopping the Bill and, in the Senate, it's very easy to do, it only takes one!" Mr. Trump wrote on social media, noting that passing the bill would give professional golfers more time on the greens. "So, everyone in Arkansas, a State I love, and won 3 times, the last by by 34 points, tell Tom to, GET IT DONE! It will be appreciated by all," Mr. Trump said.

Mr. Trump included a phone number with an Arkansas area code. This is not the first time the president has released personal information about a senator. 

While competing for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, the late Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina described Mr. Trump as "unfit for office" after Mr. Trump denigrated the military service of Sen. John McCain of Arizona. Mr. Trump then released Graham's personal cellphone number. That prompted a viral video in which the senator dramatically destroyed a series of flip phones. Graham later became a close ally of Mr. Trump.

Cotton, a member of Republican leadership, reiterated his opposition to permanent daylight saving time in a social media post of his own Saturday afternoon, though he is not the only Republican who opposes it.

"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. "Arkansans don't want their kids going to school in the pitch dark, and I'll always put Arkansas first."

Mr. Trump responded: " If Tom Cotton were putting Arkansas first, he would give them an extra hour of daylight and, more importantly, they wouldn't have to run all over their houses, farms, work places, and everywhere else, twice a year, having to change their Clocks, and often forgetting to do so."

Members of Congress have long been interested in the potential benefits and costs of daylight saving time since it was first adopted as a wartime measure in 1942. The Senate passed a bill four years ago to make daylight saving time permanent, but it stalled in the House.

In:

• Tom Cotton
• Trump Administration
• Arkansas