It's time for a new act, Mr Trump

DERIVED from a word in the Yiddish language, a shtick has become part of the jargon of American show business. It refers to an act, such as an adopted persona, that a comedian repeatedly uses in his or her routine.

The word has also been commonly used to describe a certain habit or eccentricity for which a person is particularly well known, like your uncle who keeps showing everyone again and again that trick with the disappearing coin.

That is when you feel like saying: "Hey, man. We're all getting tired of your old shtick. Perhaps you should come up with a new one."

This is more or less what some of President Donald Trump's closest aides would like to tell their boss these days. They want to warn him that the familiar Trumpist shtick - bashing the mainstream media, demonising illegal immigrants from Mexico and Central America…