Paul Singer, and Eliza Collins

USA TODAY

Hillary Clinton has declined to debate Bernie Sanders ahead of the June 7 California primary, but Donald Trump says he might be willing to.

“I’d love to debate Bernie, he’s a dream," Trump said to reporters Thursday in Bismarck, N.D. But, he added, the debate would not come cheap: “I’d love to debate Bernie, but they have to pay a lot of money for it."

How much is a lot? "Something over $10 million," Trump responded. The money raised would come from the TV networks profiting off the ratings.

“If we can raise for maybe women’s health issues or something, if we can raise $10 or $15 million for charity," Trump said.

Sanders agreed. After Trump's comments, Sanders tweeted he was "delighted."

The comments followed Trump's appearance on ABC's Jimmy Kimmel Live Wednesday night, during which he said he would be willing to debate Sanders if it was to benefit charity. "If I debated him we would have such high ratings," Trump said. "Take that money and give it to some worthy charity."

Sanders immediately responded to that offer.

Is this serious? "Of course we're interested. It was Bernie's suggestion," Sanders spokesman Michael Briggs told USA TODAY on Thursday morning.

Sanders — who will appear on Kimmel's show Thursday — submitted the request to debate ahead of time and Kimmel read it to Trump.

It's hard to imagine this happening, but one has to assume that the two would have a good time agreeing that they are better than Clinton.

Trump has had good things to say about Sanders.

"The system is rigged against him," Trump told Kimmel. "I think its very unfair."

Sanders — who lags far behind former secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the delegate count — frequently cites poll numbers that show him doing better against Trump than Clinton is.