Ben Sasse

WASHINGTON — Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse drew scorn and even threats from Donald Trump’s supporters after he tweeted a series of critiques and questions about the Republican presidential front-runner in January.

Undaunted, the freshman GOP senator posted an online video in which he read aloud a litany of “mean tweets” about himself. Wearing a red University of Nebraska pullover, the boyish-looking Sasse recited rebukes calling him a loser and asking how “this bozo is a U.S. senator.”

Now Sasse, 44, again finds himself tangling with Trump and his supporters after he became the first Republican senator to declare publicly he would not back Trump if the billionaire businessman wins the GOP nomination for president.

Sasse, who does not face re-election until 2020, said he knows his remarks are unpopular in his strongly Republican state. But he called Trump “a guy who wants to tear things down and divide Americans” and said he sees a resemblance between Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton — “two fundamentally dishonest New York liberals.”