Don’t say we can’t get any Republican Senators to stand up to Donald Trump. This week Senator Tom Cotton from Arkansas saved Americans from losing an extra hour of sleep this weekend by blocking Senate passage of a bill to allow states to make Daylight Saving Time permanent:
The Arkansas Republican was on hand Tuesday afternoon to thwart a bipartisan effort on the chamber floor to pass a bill that would put an end to changing the clocks twice a year, including this coming Sunday.
“If permanent Daylight Savings Time becomes the law of the land, it will again make winter a dark and dismal time for millions of Americans,” said Cotton in his objection to a request by Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) to advance the bill by unanimous consent.
“For many Arkansans, permanent daylight savings time would mean the sun wouldn’t rise until after 8:00 or even 8:30am during the dead of winter,” Cotton continued. “The darkness of permanent savings time would be especially harmful for school children and working Americans.”
…Cotton on Tuesday decried the “abject failure” of the last time Congress enacted permanent daylight saving time in 1974, pledging to always oppose legislation that would do just that [Benjamin Guggenheim, “Cotton Blocks Trump-Backed Effort to Make Daylight Saving Time Permanent,” Politico, 2025.10.28].
Senator Scott’s “Sunshine Protection Act” would not have put us all on permanent Daylight Saving Time. It would have let states set their own clocks, thus expanding clock chaos around the country:
In nearly every state over the last year, lawmakers have considered legislation to lock the clocks on permanent daylight or permanent standard time.
Two states, Arizona (at least most of it) and Hawaii, already observe permanent standard time. Ten other states have enacted legislation that would make daylight saving time permanent, should Congress approve such a move.
In roughly half of the remaining states, efforts have focused on permanent standard time [Addy Bink, “Daylight Saving Time: Which States Want to Stop Changing Clocks?” The Hill, 2025.09.06].
King Don has sent mixed signals on changing the clocks, but his most recent statement this spring reiterated his 2019 position favoring darker mornings and lighter evenings:
After calling on Congress to “eliminate Daylight Saving Time” back in December, Trump then called it a “50/50 issue” in March before suggesting this month that lawmakers should make daylight saving time permanent. That would mean more daylight in the evening hours and most Americans would no longer have to change their clocks twice a year [Ben Leonard, “Trump Sparks Lobbying Battle on Daylight Saving Time,” Politico, 2025.04.21].
I am not willing to give Cotton credit here for standing up to Trump. If Cotten had provided the key vote to release the Epstein files, the key vote to end tariffs by executive order, to halt construction of the Trump ball room (formally known as the East Wing), to re-expand the refugee quota in both number and nation . . . THOSE would be standing up to Trump.
Today, Trump is asking the Senate Republicans to end the filibuster, that is the last check in Trump’s power — the only political cover Senate Republicans had before being compelled to toe the MAGA line. That move will DRASTICALLY increase the pressure on Senate Republicans to quaff deeply the MAGA Kool Aid agenda.
Scott the 75 times taker of the fifth is something else. He’s an original criminal supporting the criminal in the white house. Long neck Tom pretends to be a maverick but he still lies like a rug. Oh those Democrats shutting down the government to give illegals free healthcare business. Republicans live their own fantasy.