The Sunshine Protection Act — which Trump insists on calling the "No More Changing of Clocks Act" — passed the House 308-117 in July with broad bipartisan support. It would make Daylight Saving Time permanent, ending the twice-annual clock change Americans have practiced for decades. The bill is now stuck in the Senate, where a single senator can block floor action, and Tom Cotton of Arkansas is doing exactly that. Trump escalated Saturday by publishing what he claimed was Cotton's phone number on Truth Social, urging Arkansas constituents to pressure him directly. The move is a replay of his 2016 tactic against Lindsey Graham during the Republican primaries — a public humiliation designed to make opposition personally costly. Al Jazeera called the number; the voicemail box was full. Neither Cotton's office nor the White House responded to comment requests. Cotton's opposition isn't arbitrary. In a Senate floor speech last year, he argued that permanent DST would force farmers, construction workers, commuters, and schoolchildren to begin their days in darkness during winter months. This is the same concern that killed the last attempt: Congress adopted year-round DST in 1974 during the energy crisis, then repealed it in less than a year over child safety fears as kids walked to school before sunrise. Trump dismissed Cotton's argument and framed the bill as a painless partisan win, citing support from PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp and invoking golfers, tennis players, hunters, and farmers who "want more Daylight to play or work." He added personal testimony from "a table full of very distinguished people" at his Sterling, Virginia golf club who told him they hate going home in the dark after a time change. The real dynamic here is not about clocks. Trump is using a populist-friendly, low-consequence bill to establish a public norm: Republican senators who defy him will be named, shamed, and have their personal information broadcast to millions. The policy itself is nearly trivial; the precedent is not. Cotton is being made an example for any senator contemplating independence on larger legislation. The Senate left Washington this week with no scheduled return before November 3 midterm elections. Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana told Reuters the bill is "dead as disco" and that Majority Leader John Thune is unlikely to bring it to the floor. The procedural reality is plain: a single senator's hold can stall legislation indefinitely, and Cotton appears unmoved despite the presidential pressure campaign. The 1974 precedent looms as a substantive counterargument that neither Trump nor the bill's supporters have adequately addressed. Permanent DST means sunrises after 8:30 a.m. in northern states during winter — the exact condition that generated public backlash fifty years ago. Whether the politics have changed enough to override that concern is an open question the Senate appears uninterested in answering before the election.
