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President Donald Trump has renewed the national emergency declared by President George W. Bush three days after 9/11, extending the nation’s emergency “terrorist” threat declaration for the 25th year in a row.

Signed September 14, 2001, Proclamation 7463 vastly expanded the executive branch’s authority to mobilize troops and the National Guard in response to the 9/11 attack. In combination with other extraordinary White House moves at the time, these orders expanded the power afforded to the president over the other branches of government — laying the groundwork for Trump’s wide-ranging power grab today.

Trump’s explanation for the renewal of the order, posted earlier this week, was curt. In a notice posted to the Federal Register, the administration said its powers are needed to address “the continuing and immediate threat of further attacks on the United States,” because “the terrorist threat continues.”

Every president since Bush has renewed Proclamation 7463 and its companion, Executive Order 13224, signed roughly a week after the military proclamation. Executive Order 13224 gave the State Department and the Department of the Treasury power to label groups as “specially designated global terrorists” and take economic actions against them, like sanctions. Such emergency powers were........

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