The country’s president told a crowd of supporters in a Turkish town on the Black Sea coast: “You can never bring this nation in line with the language of threats.
“I am once again calling on those in America: It is a pity that you choose a pastor over your strategic partner in NATO.
“If the U.S. is turning its back on us choosing a pastor instead, sorry we continue our path with decisive steps.
“This treatment by America of its strategic partner has annoyed us, it has upset us.”
The Turkish and US governments have locked horns over a wide rang of issues inlcuding their interests in Syria, Turkey’s ambition to buy Russian defence systems and the case of evangelical pastor Andrew Brunson, who is currently on trial in Turkey on terrorism charges.
Mr Brunson was moved to house arrest in July after spending almost 20 months in a Turkish jail.
Since then Donald Trump and his Vice President Mike Pence have repeatedly demanded his release as Ankara insists the decision is up to the courts.
In response, Mr Trump sanction two Turkish ministers and on Friday he announced he was double the tariffs on steel and aluminium imports from Turkey.
He tweeted: “I have just authorized a doubling of Tariffs on Steel and Aluminum with respect to Turkey as their currency, the Turkish Lira, slides rapidly downward against our very strong Dollar!
“Aluminum will now be 20% and Steel 50%. Our relations with Turkey are not good at this time!”
Shares of Turkish steelmakers Kardemir and Erdemir plunged as much as eight percent and 9.9 percent respectively after Trump’s tweet.
The Turkish lira, already in a steady decline, crashed to a new record low, including losing 18 percent at one point.
The lira had already lost one third of its value this year over concerns about Erdogan’s expanding control of the economy, but yesterday it had its biggest fall since 2001.
On Friday Turkey’s finance minister and Erdogan’s son-in-law Berat Albayrak unveiled a new economic approach, but it didn’t do much to help the slipping lira.
Erdogan called on Turks to support the lira to win what he called the “war of independence”.
He said: “If there are dollars under your pillow, take these out. If there are euros, take these out.
“Immediately give these to the banks and convert to Turkish lira and by doing this, we fight this war of independence and the future. Because this is the language they understand.”