With rapid-fire rounds the new normal, getting Trumped could be the best hint

It comes as no surprise that US president-elect Donald Trump is not missing his time on the sets of The Apprentice given the number of times he has been able to say “You’re fired”, if not personally and in so many words then via his staff.

Marching orders have been issued to a wide range of people associated with what might be called pre-Trump America, from political appointee US ambassadors round the world to the 89-year-old veteran announcer who has announced every presidential inauguration since the time of Dwight D Eisenhower. Clearly, the habits of reality TV die hard.

However, it must be admitted that Mr Trump in his new statesman avatar has not actually uttered his trademark phrase “You’re fired!” that put paid to many a fledgling go-getter’s career in the past.

Yet. But he would earn praise from some quarters precisely for his pithy turn of phrase in such matters; at least no one is left in any doubt about career graphs once he utters those succinct words.

When the next US president gets the urge to purge, it is unlikely that he will succumb to the wordiness of bureaucratic and corporate circles and adopt obfuscatory termination phraseology so beloved of spinmeisters, describing firings as “orderly ramp-downs”, “ventilating under performers”, “transitioning out” or even “disestablishing”.