PBS: From Mexico to Russia, pipelines to refugees, President Trump had a busy first week of work. Syndicated columnist Mark Shields and New York Times columnist David Brooks join Judy Woodruff to discuss the week’s news, including an assessment of the president’s executive actions and willingness to pick fights, the White House opposition against the media and whether the GOP will assert independence.



"There are sort of two theories of he tells things that are false all the time," Brooks said on Friday's broadcast of PBS NewsHour. "Is it because he’s sort of an Orwellian figure, an authoritarian figure who is twisting words in an Orwellian manner, “1984,” to exercise power and control people’s minds, or is he a 5-year-old who has an ego that needs to be fed, and the universe has to warp around his ego needs so he can feel good about himself, and everybody has to produce photos to make the monarch feel like he’s made of gold?'"



Brooks revealed that Republican businessmen and congresspeople that he has spoken too have a "great sense of being unnerved, unnerved at the stability" of Trump. He said there is a "general sense of chaos and incompetence on how you do it."



"Among businesspeople I have spoken to, among political class and among the Republicans on the Hill, just a great sense of being unnerved, unnerved at the instability," Brooks said. "The two other things I would say is, the general sense of chaos and incompetence on how you do it."



Brooks warned some members of Congress may go to Mexico to say Trump "doesn't speak for us.'



"Some of them would love to go down to Mexico and say, hey, he doesn’t speak for us," Brooks said. "And they are not going to do it now because they’re pausing to see what happens, but six, eight months, a year, they could decide, this is too much for our country, we have to go down, and we would go to Mexico or whoever the next 18 fights he picks."



The columnist said those who swore an oath to Constitution are going to have to uphold that pledge at some point.



"But I do think he is a fundamentally unstabilizing force and that the people who swore to uphold the Constitution are going to have to take some measures at some point," he said.



Transcript, via PBS NewsHour:





DAVID BROOKS: We were here a week ago together, and it feels like a century.



And I wonder, over the course of his presidency, can he keep up this pace of news and busyness and conflict without just exhausting everybody?



And I will say, among businesspeople I have spoken to, among political class and among the Republicans on the Hill, just a great sense of being unnerved, unnerved at the instability.



Partly, he’s done what he said, as Mark said. He’s undermined the post-war international order pretty quickly. Tearing down TPP was a bill that I think economists say would have produced hundreds of millions — billions of dollars of earnings every year for Americans.



Picking a fight with our second biggest export market, very unnerving. I don’t see the — but then I think the two other things I would say is, the general sense of chaos and incompetence on how you do it.



OK, you want to pick a fight with Mexico. Do you have to do it by tweet? Do you have put forward a proposal that would have Americans paying for the wall, and then sort of withdraw it, and then sort of not withdraw it, do in a way maximally designed to polarize Mexican opinion against the United States?



And then the final thing is, I wonder, I’m left wondering, how much of this is real? OK, he signs a series of papers that Steve Bannon and others wrote for him, but who is going to implement it? Does it make any sense? We saw that with the Syrian ban in the discussion earlier in the program.



How much of it is the government just going to let him sign papers and then it just goes along their merry way?...



DAVID BROOKS: He’s just picked fight after fight. This was an example.



And there are sort of two theories of he tells things that are false all the time. Is it because he’s sort of an Orwellian figure, an authoritarian figure who is twisting words in an Orwellian manner, “1984,” to exercise power and control people’s minds, or is he a 5-year-old who has an ego that needs to be fed, and the universe has to warp around his ego needs so he can feel good about himself, and everybody has to produce photos to make the monarch feel like he’s made of gold?'



MARK SHIELDS: Which do you vote on?



DAVID BROOKS: I vote on the 5-year-old kid.



MARK SHIELDS: King George III?



DAVID BROOKS: The madness of King George III.



And so I think, when we see that distortion, it’s because he just needs the ego fed all the time.



And I don’t if anybody saw the — after the CIA, he gave an ABC interview where he talked about the standing ovation …



JUDY WOODRUFF: I watched it.



DAVID BROOKS: … at the CIA, the longest ever …



MARK SHIELDS: Peyton Manning.



DAVID BROOKS: … since Peyton Manning.



Well, first of all, the employees couldn’t sit down because he didn’t tell them to sit down. So, they’re standing. Of course it’s a standing ovation. They can’t sit down.



But then the way he went on and on, that was a home run, and, I mean, it’s — it’s weird...



DAVID BROOKS: Well, I do think there is another opposition more effective right now, or more important, which is people who work in government, some of the civil servants.



They have to — if we’re going to impose a visa on European countries, they have got to process it. And, believe me, civil servants have many ways to not do something. And it’s easier for them not to do it.



The second is Congress, and not only the Democrats, but — that’s important, but also the Republicans in Congress. The Republicans in Congress, A, they believe in Ronald Reagan’s Republican Party, not Donald Trump Republican Party or Steve Bannon’s Republican Party.



Second, they have made this Faustian bargain with the guy. They think, we’re going to tolerate him, and — but just as long as he signs our legislation. And if we can get some health care that we like or a tax reform that we like, all that chaos is worth it.



But the chaos may turn out to be too high a price to pay. And so now we get in a big fight with Mexico, and some members of Congress are very upset that we have upset this, needlessly started a trade war, which could go totally out of control.



And some of them would love to go down to Mexico and say, hey, he doesn’t speak for us. And they are not going to do it now because they’re pausing to see what happens, but six, eight months, a year, they could decide, this is too much for our country, we have to go down, and we would go to Mexico or whoever the next 18 fights he picks...



JUDY WOODRUFF: But, David, what makes you think that Republicans are going to have, as Mark said, the backbone to stand up to him?



DAVID BROOKS: Well, A, because I hear rumblings of it. I hope rumblings lead to backbone.



But, second, if present is prologue, then Trump is this whirling dervish of chaos. He picked a fight with Mexico. Germany is not far behind. He will pick a fight with them. He will pick a fight with China, which would be truly cataclysmic.



Vietnam has been severely hurt by what he did this week on TPP. So just a series of big fights just in the international arena. And, as I mentioned a couple weeks ago, the president makes a lot of decisions about use of armed force.



And some of those are going to go — for him to make decisions on questionable information is going to happen. He’s going to have to make those decisions. And it will just feel like the whole American project, I believe, is weirdly under threat.



Now, it could be that he just does this in the realm of media, and he lives up there, and Steve Bannon runs policy down here. And that would just have a Berlusconi destabilizing effect on our culture, and have no practical effect.



But I do think he is a fundamentally unstabilizing force and that the people who swore to uphold the Constitution are going to have to take some measures at some point.