U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz is photographed inside the Rayburn House Office Building Feb. 27, 2019. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

In a scathing commentary, veteran journalist Hugh Jackson of the Nevada Current summarized recent developments in Washington this way: quote – “U.S. Congress replaced by an app on Trump’s phone.”

Sadly, Jackson’s biting hyperbole isn’t that far off.

Since his election, Donald Trump has quickly nominated a slate of remarkably unqualified lackeys to lead the nation’s most important government departments, while demanding that the ordinary U.S. Senate process for vetting and approving nominees be bypassed.

A Fox News talking head and an inexperienced ex-congresswoman for Secretary of Defense and Director of National Intelligence. An anti-vaccine advocate to head Health and Human Services. And a disgraced congressman to lead and weaponize the Department of Justice.

The bottom line: Right now, with Congress in Republican hands, there are only a small handful of lawmakers who know better and who are in a position to keep Trump even remotely in check and, as it happens, North Carolina’s Senator Thom Tillis is one of them. One prays that he musters the guts to do the right thing.

For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield.