Veteran journalist and author Bob Woodward compared Russian President Vladimir Putin to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, claiming Putin is “trying to play” former President Trump, putting the U.S. in dangerous spot if he returns to the Oval Office.

“How is this a smart thing,” Woodward said Tuesday in an appearance on CNN’s “AC360," when asked to weigh in on Trump's interview with Bloomberg editor-in-chief John Micklethwait. “Who is Vladimir Putin? Look, Putin is the 20th century's Adolf Hitler."

Woodward continued. “What Putin is doing in Ukraine is not just territorial assault. It is him saying, and if you read what he said and written about this, ‘Oh, Russia is entitled to Ukraine, so we are just going to take it.’ And that's precisely what he's working on."

"It's the biggest war that's going on in the world right now," he told host Anderson Cooper.

Micklethwait asked Trump on Tuesday about the reports from Woodward’s new book, “War,” that the former president has spoken several times with Putin since leaving the White House in 2021. 

“I don’t comment on that, but I will tell you that if I did, it is a smart thing,” Trump said in his remarks from the Economic Club of Chicago. “If I’m friendly with people, if I have a relationship with people, that’s a good thing, not a bad thing. … He’s got 2,000 nuclear weapons, and so do we.”

The Trump campaign pushed back on the criticism, claiming Woodward's accounts were "made up stories."

The veteran journalist suggested Russia's nearly three-year war with Ukraine is not "going well" at the moment. Asked by Cooper if he had ever witnessed a world leader so "easily open to manipulation, to flatter, to praise," he pointed to an excerpt from his book.

“But here's one of the things that I was able to report in the book: CIA Director Bill Burns quote says ‘Putin manipulates. He's professionally trained to do that. Putin's got a plan, just as he did when Trump was in office, at playing Trump.’" Woodward said. "Now that's not some political opponent saying that about Trump."

“That’s the CIA director who is steeped in the analysis, in this idea, and I know they have very good intelligence,” he added. “What’s Putin trying to do, he's trying to play Donald Trump." So I think we are in such a dangerous position that Trump might become president."