Incoming UF President Ben Sasse knows that Donald Trump’s criticism is shaping the legacy of the Senate

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Nebraskas outgoing US Sen. Ben Sasse who may be remembered more for his criticism of former President Donald Trump than the policies he supported during his eight years in office.

Sasse spoke about his political legacy to the Omaha World-Heralds as he prepared to leave the Senate Sunday to become president of the University of Florida.

Sasse is a prominent critic of Trump who joined several other Republicans to vote to convict the former president in his impeachment trial after the Capitol riots in 2021. Those criticisms led to sharp criticism of Sasse by his own political party in Nebraska even though Sasse voted with Trump 85% of the time and helped confirm his three nominees to the US Supreme Court.

Sasse admits that his complicated relationship with Trump will shape his legacy.

Im just sad for him as a human because obviously theres a lot of complicated things going on in that soul, Sasse said to the newspaper. On a human level, I feel sad for him to be so needy and desperate. But on a policy level, I always like that he kept his word to the judges. … And so we have to work hard with the judges.

Sasse said he was proud of his work on the Senate Intelligence committee that included setting up a cybersecurity commission. He said 120 of those groups’ 190 recommendations were passed into law.

The job at the University of Florida will allow Sasse, who studied American history at Harvard, Yale and Oxford, to return to academia at a larger institution. Before he was elected to the Senate, Sasse led the small, private Midland University in his hometown of Fremont, Nebraska.

Sasse said he could not resist the opportunity to lead one of the country’s largest public universities even though he has turned down overtures from other universities in recent years.

South Florida is like a giant blank canvas, Sasse said. And so I’m very excited about a lot of new things to do.

Name of the newly elected Gov. Jim Pillen is Sasses’ replacement, and the leading candidate for the job is former Gov. Pete Ricketts Pillen replaced this month after term limits prevented the Republican from running again.

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Republished with permission of The Associated Press.

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