President Trump posted a fellow Republican senator’s personal cellphone number on social media, and now another GOP senator is warning Trump he can play that game too.
Quick Take
- President Trump posted Senator Tom Cotton’s cellphone number on Truth Social during a fight over permanent daylight saving time.
- Trump told Arkansas residents to call Cotton and pressure him to back the bill.
- Representative Chip Roy said Cotton “should not have been doxxed.”
- Senator Thom Tillis joked on “The View” that he has Trump’s number too and could return the favor.
- Senator John Kennedy also blasted the move, saying Trump can go from calm to furious “in about 3 seconds.”
Trump Posts Cotton’s Number Over Clock Fight
President Trump shared what he said was Senator Tom Cotton’s personal cellphone number on Truth Social on a Saturday in early October. He wrote, “To the Great People of Arkansas, please let your Senator know it would be a GREAT Bipartisan WIN for the United States Senate, and for America, itself. Call Tom on his cellphone.” Two officials confirmed the number belonged to Cotton.
The fight was over the Sunshine Protection Act, a bill to make daylight saving time permanent year-round. Trump has pushed hard for the change and framed Cotton as the lone holdout blocking it. “Tom Cotton is holding it. He shouldn’t be holding it. It’s an issue that people want,” Trump said when asked about the bill. He declined to explain why he posted the number itself.
Fellow Republicans Push Back
Not every Republican cheered the move. Representative Chip Roy defended Cotton directly, telling reporters the senator “should not have been doxxed” over a policy disagreement. Cotton himself pushed back publicly too, writing that daylight saving changes have been tried before and repealed once Americans saw how late winter sunrises get, defending his position without backing down from the fight.
Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana also took a shot at the president’s temper during a Sunday morning interview. Kennedy said Trump “can go from zero to a hole in about 3 seconds,” warning that posting a colleague’s private number crossed a line even in a policy spat between allies.
Tillis Turns the Threat Around
Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina addressed the controversy directly when hosts on “The View” asked if Trump might doxx him next. Tillis shot back, “With all due respect, I have his number, too,” adding that he and Trump have texted back and forth since the Cotton episode broke. The comment drew laughs but carried a clear warning.
The episode fits a pattern researchers have tracked for years: posting a private phone number online to pressure or humiliate a target counts as doxxing, even when the target is a sitting senator used to public scrutiny. Legal experts and state lawmakers increasingly treat a personal cellphone differently than an office line, since it invites direct harassment rather than filtered contact through staff.
Whatever side Republicans land on in the daylight saving fight, the Cotton episode shows how quickly an intraparty policy dispute can turn personal. Trump’s allies argue he was simply applying public pressure the way he always has, while critics inside his own party, from Roy to Kennedy to Tillis, say posting a colleague’s private number went further than ordinary political hardball.
Sources:
mediaite.com, citizenfreepress.com, tillis.senate.gov, ibtimes.co.uk, mediabias.news
