7 Things Donald Trump Has Done In 7 Days As President

President Trump officially took office just seven days ago this Friday, placing the White House back in Republicans' hands for the first time since 2009. In just one week, the shift in leadership has been felt across the country.

Some of the changes taking place would have happened under any Republican president, but many of Trump's priorities are unique to Trump.

Here are seven things you should know the new president did this week:

1. Inauguration speech

Trump's first act as president after taking the oath of office followed the usual protocol: He gave an inauguration speech. Typically, these speeches call for unity after a divisive election, but Trump's focused more on wresting back power from establishment politicians:

"For too long, those in politics have reaped the rewards of government while people have borne the cost," he said. "Washington flourished, but the people did not share in its wealth."

Notably, Trump did not mention his campaign rival Hillary Clinton in the speech, though he did later publicly thank her that day.

2. Ending mortgage relief

On his first day in office, Trump ended the Obama administration policy that cut mortgage fees for first-time homeowners and those with low incomes. According to Bloomberg, this cut reduced that annual premium of a borrower owing $200,000 by $500 in the first year.

“One hour after talking about helping working people and ending the cabal in Washington that hurts people, he signs a regulation that makes it more expensive for new homeowners to buy mortgages,” Sen. Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York, said, criticizing the decision.

But opponents of the cut argued that it was rushed through for political reasons by the Obama team.

3. Announced a launch of an investigation into voter fraud

After telling a group of lawmakers that he believes 3 to 5 million votes in the 2016 election were fraudulent, Trump announced that he would push for an investigation into the issue.

"I will be asking for a major investigation into VOTER FRAUD, including those registered to vote in two states, those who are illegal and even, those registered to vote who are dead (and many for a long time)," he tweeted. "Depending on results, we will strengthen up voting procedures!"

However, even many Republicans say there is no evidence for the president's claims.

4. Endorsed torture

Echoing sentiments he expressed on the campaign trail, Trump told ABC interviewer David Muir that he supported the use of torture: "When ISIS is doing things that nobody has ever heard of since medieval times, would I feel strongly about waterboarding? As far as I'm concerned, we have to fight fire with fire."

But he also said that he would defer to Secretary of Defense James Mattis and CIA Director Mike Pompeo, who both oppose torture, about whether or not to use these techniques.

5. Claimed murder rate in Philadelphia was up

“Right now, too many families don’t feel secure,” Trump said at a speech in Philadelphia on Thursday. “Just look at the 30 largest cities. In the last year alone, the murder rate has increased by an estimated 14 percent. Here in Philadelphia the murder rate has been steadily, I mean, just terribly increasing."

However, as many reports pointed out, this is not accurate. While murder has increased recently in some cities, Philadelphia experienced 277 murders in 2016 while there were 280 in 2015. In the last 10 years, the city's murder rate has declined by around 10 percent, as The Hill noted. There has been, though, an uptick in the murder rate at the beginning of 2017.

6. Moved forward on immigration policies and the border wall

Also on Thursday, Trump signed executive orders to step up immigration enforcement and to begin working on building his promised border wall. These orders include a threat to withdraw funding from sanctuary cities and an increase in the number of agents working on deportations.

"Beginning today, the United States of America gets back control of its borders," Trump said to the Department of Homeland Security.

7. Announced plans for a Mexican import tax

Through Press Secretary Sean Spicer, the White House announced a plan to place a 20 percent import tax on goods coming from Mexico. However, follow-up reports indicated that the White House was not committed to any specifics on this plan and it was just floating the idea as one of many ways to pay for the border wall.

"There's nothing to roll out so the idea of asking for the details on something, we're not there yet," Spicer said. "It could be multiple things. Instead of 20 percent, it could be 18, it could be 5."

Photo credit: White House photographer