Trump accuses Republican Tom Cotton of blocking permanent daylight saving time

President Donald Trump on Friday again targeted Republican Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas, whom he publicly accused of single-handedly blocking the law on permanent daylight saving time in the United States, as the New York Post reports.

In a post on Truth Social, published after midnight, Trump said the reform “is being held up by Senator Tom Cotton, of Arkansas, for unknown reasons. People are tired of changing the clock twice a year.”

The House of Representatives approved the bill on July 14, 2026, by 308 votes to 117, with bipartisan support. But the Senate adjourned on Wednesday and will return only after the November 3 midterm elections — which means the clocks will go back on November 1 and Americans will lose an hour of daylight.

Cotton, 49, has said he would “always” oppose this reform, citing the chaos of Congress’s experiment with year-round daylight saving time in 1974, which was repealed after a few months because of a strong public backlash.

As winter approaches, pressure on the Senate is growing: on the winter solstice, December 21, the sun sets in New York as early as 4:31 p.m. and in Washington at 4:49 p.m. Trump has made permanent daylight saving time one of his political battles of the autumn, but without a move from Cotton and the Senate leadership, the reform risks stalling again.