“They want to talk, and I have agreed to talk, so I will be talking to them. They should have done it sooner. They should have given what was very practical and easy to do sooner. They waited too long,” Trump told The Atlantic’s Michael Scherer in a phone call.

Asked when the talks might take place, Trump said, “I can’t tell you that.”

He further said that “most” of the Iranians involved in negotiations with the US in recent weeks were no longer alive, “because that was a big – that was a big hit.”

“They should have done it sooner, Michael. They could have made a deal. They should’ve done it sooner. They played too cute,” Trump told the journalist.