<P> Although his successors have used the room for other purposes during their terms in office, Johnson was apparently the last President to sign legislation in the President's Room until Donald Trump . Trump signed a bill on his first day in office, January 20, 2017, waiving the seven - year waiting period for a former military officer to serve as Secretary of Defense . That law allowed James Mattis to be nominated . </P> <P> In the exuberant days following his November 1980 election victory, President - elect Ronald Reagan happily looked toward the Capitol and told reporters, "Get the President's Room ready!" Although his immediate predecessor, Jimmy Carter, had expressed similar intentions when he took office in 1977, he never acted on them . Four years earlier, Senator Howard Baker of Tennessee had unsuccessfully urged President Richard Nixon to move his working offices to the Capitol, leaving the White House as the president's ceremonial and residential quarters . </P> <P> Living up to his earlier promise, Reagan made the President's Room his first stop after leaving the Capitol's inaugural platform on January 20, 1981 . Accompanied by Vice President George H.W. Bush, Senate leaders Howard Baker and Robert C. Byrd, and a large media contingent, the new President signed nominations to U.S. Cabinet posts and an order freezing federal employment . On several occasions in the ensuing months, Reagan returned to this room to confer with congressional leaders on a budget compromise . Following Reagan's example, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump have chosen to begin their presidencies with a visit here . </P>

The president's room in the white house