The original plan was also one that everyone rejected from the beginning — Mr. Trump even criticized public-private partnerships, which were key to the plan’s financing — and no new plan has been put forward since.
But Democrats went to the White House for a meeting, intent to play along as if there was a chance.
Ms. Pelosi requested the meeting with Mr. Trump in April, in part to change the conversation from impeachment to infrastructure and to demonstrate that Democrats want to proceed with a policy agenda, and not merely with oversight investigations of the president.
For Mr. Trump, an infrastructure deal would provide him with a bipartisan achievement he could point to while campaigning.
Democrats arrived on Tuesday with a dozen-member delegation of lawmakers. Mr. Trump was accompanied in the meeting by Elaine Chao, the transportation secretary, as well as seven White House aides, including his daughter Ivanka Trump, who is also a presidential adviser; Larry Kudlow, the director of the National Economic Council; and Pat Cipollone, the White House counsel.
The only members of Mr. Trump’s team to speak were Mr. Kudlow and Ms. Chao, according to a source familiar with the meeting.
Democrats have become prepared for surprises during meetings with Mr. Trump. In the past, he has conducted supposedly closed-door sessions on live television, or shuttled his guests to the Situation Room for maximum privacy.
They, in turn, have surprised him by quickly reporting out the top lines of their meetings, speaking to reporters on the driveway in front of the White House. In September 2017, for instance, after Mr. Schumer and Ms. Pelosi joined the president for in-house Chinese food, they announced that Mr. Trump had agreed to work on an immigration deal, including protections for thousands of young immigrants from deportation. Mr. Trump was later forced to backtrack from that position.