Donald Trump’s wild public disclosure of a Republican senator’s phone number has quickly turned into a fiasco.
Sen. Tom Cotton’s personal Venmo account was found to be linked to the number Trump, 80, had posted on social media.
Social media users quickly began requesting outlandish sums from the senator, with some posting his refusals on X.
“He’s being stingy,” one wrote above a screenshot of the senator declining the request for “$1000 for the increase in gas prices.”
Trump posted Cotton’s number to Truth Social early Saturday in a frustrated attempt to pressure the senator to vote to permanently adopt daylight saving time.
Cotton has refused to support the Sunshine Protection Act and the president’s attempt to pressure him appears to have backfired, with the senator posting a statement on X Saturday afternoon saying he didn’t want children in Arkansas to be going to school in the dark in winter months.
“No one likes changing the clock, me included, but Congress has enacted permanent Daylight Savings Time multiple times before and repealed it each time once Americans experienced absurdly late sunrises in the winter,” he said.
The sun is typically up by around 7:15 a.m. in the winter months, meaning under permanent DST that would shift to 8:15 am.
Trump himself has previously acknowledged that the issue is a divisive one, calling it a “50/50 issue” in May and saying he couldn’t get excited about it.
But as the midterms approach, the president is desperate to pass legislation and generate “positive” news as his approval rating tanks over the cost of living and the Iran war.
The House passed the bill in July, but it has stalled in the Senate, and has now become one of Trump’s fixations as he desperately casts around for a win.
Cotton was already being bombarded with calls and texts on Saturday afternoon when Washington Sun reporter Oriana González revealed the Venmo account on X.
Venmo allows users to request payments from other registered accounts. You just need the user’s handle, email, or their phone number to make a request.
A user’s account won’t be debited unless they accept the request.
X users jumped at the chance to have some fun with the request feature.
“Going to put in a request for the $2 billion a day for the Iran War,” reporter Julian Andreone quipped.
While Florida Democratic strategist Max Flugrath wanted Americans to “start requesting their doge checks”—a reference to the $5000 checks Trump and Department of Government Efficiency head Elon Musk teased at the beginning of the second Trump administration.
Libertarian writer David Brady Jr. thought it was a better idea to ask for the new $5,000 checks—the ones Trump is touting on the campaign trail as an inducement to vote Republican in the midterms.
“Requesting the $5,000 promised by the President from the Senator from Arkansas,” he wrote.
As of Sunday, the account linked to the senator’s phone number was no longer available on Venmo.
The senator and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
