“For some reason, Tom is stopping the Bill and, in the Senate, it’s very easy to do, it only takes one!” President Donald Trump wrote, naming Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas. The target was a bill to end the twice-yearly clock change, and the timing could hardly be worse for its backers.
Trump’s Truth Social posts came on Friday, October 2. He called the Sunshine Protection Act the “No More Changing of Clocks Act” and said it had passed the House 308 to 117 on July 14, then stalled in the Senate. His case was practical. The clock switching, he wrote, “costs our Country a fortune” and is hard on people. Most people, he added, would rather have an extra hour of sunlight in the evening than in the morning. He also claimed it would cut crime and car accidents, lift retail, restaurants, tourism and sports, and save towns with watchtowers and remote sites millions of dollars. He singled out PGA Commissioner Brian Rolapp, saying winter golf tournaments run out of daylight.
Cotton’s reasons are not hard to find. In an October 2025 Senate speech he said permanent daylight saving time “will again make winter a dark and dismal time for millions of Americans.” His worry is schoolchildren heading out before sunrise, and farmers and construction crews who start early. Winter sunrises in parts of Arkansas would come after 8 a.m. After Trump shared Cotton’s cell phone number and urged people to call him, Cotton answered on X. “No one likes changing the clock, me included,” he wrote, but Congress had enacted permanent daylight saving time several times and repealed it each time “once Americans experienced absurdly late sunrises in the winter.” He added: “I’ll always put Arkansas first.”
Trump hit that line directly. If Cotton were putting Arkansas first, he said, he would give the state an extra hour of daylight, “and, unlike Tom, I won that Great State, three times, and by almost 40 points.” He had earlier endorsed Cotton’s reelection bid. Trump also described the Senate as “a place where things go to die” and said earlier attempts were dropped because lawmakers traded the idea away as a bargaining chip for bigger legislation.
Why one senator matters, and why the votes are not there
Trump’s “it only takes one” reflects how the Senate works: a single objection can hold up a bill that has wide support. The harder problem is arithmetic. Majority Leader John Thune has questioned whether the bill can reach the 60 votes needed to beat a filibuster, and Republican senators remain split.
Calendar pressure makes it worse. The Senate has adjourned ahead of the November 3 midterms and does not vote again until November 9. Clocks go back on November 1, so nothing will change this year.
The history, and which time to keep
Congress tried year-round daylight saving time in 1974 during the energy crisis and dropped it that same year as complaints about dark winter mornings grew. The Senate passed a similar bill unanimously in 2022, but the House never took it up. Under current law, daylight saving time starts on the second Sunday in March and ends on the first Sunday in November. States can stay on standard time all year, as Hawaii and most of Arizona do, but a state that wants permanent daylight saving time needs Congress to act.
Even many who want an end to clock changes disagree on the fix. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine backs scrapping the switches but prefers permanent standard time, saying it fits the body’s natural sleep rhythms better. Opponents of the Trump-backed version point to darker mornings, especially in northern states.
Sources
- Trump Targets Cotton on Daylight Saving Time Bill
- Trump Calls Out Cotton for Blocking Permanent Daylight Saving Time
- Sen. Cotton Defends Opposition to Permanent Daylight Saving Time Bill
Sources
- Trump urges calls to Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton in push for … – PBS
- Trump Targets Cotton on Daylight Saving Time Bill – Yahoo
