Barely a week into his presidency, Donald Trump had already signed dozens of executive orders, each more cringeworthy than the last. His power grab partly comes from his leadership style. But we must also put his actions in the context of the longstanding history of the imperial presidency.

Trump’s presidency epitomizes a problem that has been years in the making. Richard Nixon started it, George W. Bush resurrected it, Barack Obama normalized it, and now Donald Trump is seizing and extending it.

Arthur Schlesinger Jr first coined the term “imperial presidency” in 1973 in response to Nixon’s executive overreach. Between his secret war against Laos and his now infamous statement about presidential impunity — “when the president does it, that means it is not illegal” — Schlesinger worried that the role of commander-in-chief had gotten out of control and needed new restraint.