U.S. President Donald Trump | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Trump: North Korea rhetoric ‘calmed down,’ but US still could exit talks The White House announced earlier this month that Trump would meet directly with Kim.

President Donald Trump said Thursday the heated rhetoric with North Korea has “certainly” cooled off, adding that the U.S. is prepared to step back from the negotiating table if discussions sour.

During an event on infrastructure in Richfield, Ohio, the president expressed optimism for further progress in talks with North Korea and its leader Kim Jong Un.

“Certainly the rhetoric has calmed down just a little bit, would you say?” Trump said of North Korea. “We'll see how it all turns out. Maybe it will be good. Maybe it won't. If it's no good, we're walking. And if it's good, we will embrace it."

The White House announced earlier this month that Trump would meet directly with Kim. But the Trump administration has yet to say when the summit will be held.

The U.S. leader predicted Wednesday on Twitter that Kim “will do what is right for his people and for humanity,” while maintaining that his administration will keep exerting maximum pressure on North Korea.

“For years and through many administrations, everyone said that peace and the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula was not even a small possibility. Now there is a good chance that Kim Jong Un will do what is right for his people and for humanity. Look forward to our meeting!” the president wrote.

Trump’s speech, delivered at a training site for members of the International Union of Operating Engineers, came the day after his council of economic advisers released a report touting the purported economic benefits of his infrastructure proposal.

White House aides acknowledge that comprehensive infrastructure legislation is unlikely between now and the 2018 midterm elections.

“Will we get the entire bill through this year, that is more of a stretch,” a senior administration official said at a briefing on Wednesday. “We're encouraged by the fact that the committees are having hearings, they are starting to engage on these issues, and we were able to deliver our proposal up there on February 12th, which has given them a good amount of time to think about what we proposed and how to integrate that into the legislation that already was pending.”

Still, the White House said it saw room for Trump to take action without Congress.

“Even while the legislative agenda is moving forward, the regulatory one doesn't require legislation, and we expect that we can make an enormous amount of progress on,” another official said on Wednesday.

Matthew Nussbaum contributed to this report.