Trump shares Republican senator's phone number in feud over daylight saving bill

US President Donald Trump on Saturday posted the supposed phone number of a Republican US senator online, escalating a feud over daylight saving time. Trump’s post on Truth Social urged people to call a phone number that he said belonged to Senator Tom Cotton, an Arkansas Republican. The dispute centres on the Sunshine Protection Act, which would make daylight saving time permanent and end the twice-yearly practice of changing clocks by one hour. Trump says most Americans want more afternoon sunlight, but Cotton has argued the change would plunge early risers into darkness during winter months. “Everybody in Arkansas, Tom Cotton, a friend of mine, is holding up a very important bill,” Trump wrote. When Reuters called the Arkansas number, it went directly to a voicemail box that did not identify itself as belonging to Cotton.

It’s the president’s second posting in as many days about Cotton’s opposition to the bill. “Nobody wants to spend their precious time running all over the place, turning clocks back twice a year and having sunshine in the afternoon is better than early in the morning! ” Trump wrote. Most US states have observed the time switch since the 1960s. Clocks this year are slated to switch back to standard time on November 1. In a Senate speech last October, Cotton said he would “always oppose” making daylight saving time permanent, adding that it would “again make winter a dark and dismal time for millions of Americans”. The US House of Representatives passed the bill in July, but Cotton is not alone in the Senate. Senator John Kennedy, a Louisiana Republican, this week called the bill “dead as disco” and said he did not think that Senate Majority Leader John Thune would bring the measure for a vote. The offices of Cotton and Thune did not immediately…