White House former national security adviser John Bolton compared Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan with Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, Ahval reported.

"The Erdogan call turned out to be an experience. Listening to him (his remarks were always interpreted), he sounded like Mussolini speaking from his Rome balcony, except that Erdogan was talking in that tone and volume over the phone. It was as if he were lecturing us while standing on the Resolute desk," Bolton said in his new book.

Bolton called Erdogan a dictator, commenting on Trump’s efforts to intervene in the federal case against the Halkbank in Turkey’s favor and to use powers to stop any further coercive actions against the bank.

"Specifically, however, I also wanted to brief (Attorney General William Barr) on Trump's penchant to, in effect, give personal favours to dictators he liked, such as the criminal cases of Halkbank, ZTE, potentially Huawei, and who knew what else," Bolton said.

The Halkbank is accused of participating in a large-scale scheme to circumvent sanctions against Iran. The indictment says that Turkish-Iranian businessman Reza Zarrab bribed senior officials, including the Turkish minister, to help redirect revenue from Iranian oil through the Halkbank through fictitious transactions.