WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump used an event Thursday with children of White House staff and reporters to take a softer tone than usual with the media – joking with the kids that he likes them "much more than your parents."

Trump made the remarks to a group of children gathered on the South Lawn for the annual Take Your Daughters and Sons to Work Day.

"It's a very special day, officially called take our daughters and our sons to work day, right? That's the politically correct term, and we always have to be politically correct, right?" Trump joked with the children. "I even love the media today, I see these beautiful children, products of the media, and I actually like you much more than your parents."

Trump also used the opportunity to say he will host Chinese President Xi Jinping at the White House "soon," signaling that the U.S. may be making progress in its longstanding trade dispute with Beijing. Trump did not give a timeline for a meeting with Xi. The White House said earlier in the week that a delegation of U.S. trade negotiators will travel to China this month. Chinese Vice Premier Liu He is expected to lead a delegation to Washington early next month to discuss trade, the White House said.

Want news from USA TODAY on WhatsApp? Click this link on your mobile device to get started

At the Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work event, Trump told the children to stay away from drugs and joked that the media uses pictures that make him look bad.

"Sometimes I think they do it on purpose actually," Trump went on. "Always my chin is pulled in, I look terrible, but that's ok."

Earlier in the day, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders held a mock press briefing for the children in what has become an annual tradition.

Sanders used that event to announce that Trump will give the commencement address next month at the Air Force Academy. The White House declared much of the kids' briefing off the record, though some details dribbled out.

U.S.-China negotiators have been meeting regularly for months after Trump announced late last year he would hold off on additional sanctions, lowering the temperature in a tit-for-tat trade war that has affected billions of dollars in goods. Despite the more positive rhetoric, the two sides have so far failed to reach an agreement to begin lifting tariffs.