Posting one senator’s phone number does not move a bill whose real gatekeeper is the majority leader.
Donald Trump posted what appeared to be Sen. Tom Cotton’s personal cell number on Truth Social on Saturday and told Arkansans to call it. The bill he wants, permanent daylight saving time, is not stuck in Cotton’s voicemail.
NBC News reported three Trump posts across Friday and Saturday, the second naming Cotton as the holdout. Cotton answered on X that Congress “enacted permanent Daylight Savings Time multiple times before and repealed it each time.” The headlines frame this as Trump against Cotton. Most of the coverage we read leaves out that the person who decides whether the Senate votes said the same thing in July.
When the House passed the bill 308 to 117 (we covered that vote), Senate Majority Leader John Thune told NBC: “I just don’t think we want a mandate, and that was tried once before and repealed.” That is not a senator’s hobbyhorse. That is the leader of the chamber.
Who Actually Holds the Gate
Here is what stands between the bill and Trump’s desk, in order:
- The House did its part on July 15, with 308 votes.
- The bill sits in the Senate Commerce Committee, where a Hill aide told NBC that Cotton’s opposition has bipartisan company.
- The fast track, unanimous consent, dies on a single objection. Cotton objected in October 2025, and a Hill aide says his concerns have not changed.
- The slow track needs floor time, which Thune controls, and for most bills 60 votes to end debate.
- We could find no Senate vote scheduled on any of it.
Removing Cotton from that list changes item three and nothing else. Items two, four and five are still standing there with their arms crossed.
The Senate has done this once before, and it only worked when nobody was looking. It passed the same idea by unanimous consent in March 2022, and the House let it die. A bill that passes only when nobody is watching has never really passed.
Cotton’s history is right, as it happens. Congress did try year-round daylight time in 1974, and Gerald Ford signed the repeal on Oct. 5, 1974, which is 52 years ago today. The reason was dark winter mornings, the exact objection Cotton keeps making.
Our view: Trump is right that the twice-a-year clock change is a silly ritual, and Cotton is right that the fix everyone keeps reaching for has already failed on contact with a January commute. If the White House wants a vote, the move is to ask Thune for floor time, not to hand a senator’s private number to a crowd. Whatever Cotton did, a mass call-in to a personal phone is pressure that invites harassment, and it does nothing to the 60-vote math.
Watch whether Thune says anything this week. That, not Cotton’s phone, is the story.