WASHINGTON (AP) — A leading candidate to be President Donald Trump's choice for Federal Reserve chair said that he would present the president's views to Fed officials for their consideration but they could reject them if they chose when making decisions on interest rates.
Kevin Hassett, in an interview Sunday on CBS News' “Face the Nation,” said he would continue to speak with Trump if he becomes the Fed chair. But when asked if Trump's opinions on interest rates would have “equal weighting” with members of the Fed's interest-rate setting committee, Hassett replied, “No, he would have no weight.”
“His opinion matters if it’s good, if it’s based on data,” Hassett continued. “And then if you go to the committee and you say, well, the president made this argument and that’s a really sound argument, I think, what do you think? If they reject it, then they’ll vote in a different way.”
Hassett’s comments come as Trump is reportedly in final interviews with potential replacements for the Fed’s current chair, Jerome Powell. Trump has emphasized that he expects whomever he nominates to lead the Fed will sharply lower the central bank’s key rate, which currently stands at about 3.6%. Trump has said it should be cut to 1% or lower, a view almost no economist shares. Trump's outspokenness has raised concerns about the Fed's independence from day-to-day politics under any chair he appoints.
Until Trump's first election in 2016, presidents of both parties for several decades had avoided commenting publicly on Fed decisions, and usually refrained from doing so privately as well. Economists generally believe that a politically independent Fed is better at combating inflation, because it can take unpopular steps to keep prices down, such as raise interest rates.
On Friday, however, Trump said that he “certainly should have a role in talking to whoever the head of the Fed is” about rates.
“I’ve done great. I’ve made a lot of money, I’m very successful,” he said. “I think my voice should be heard.”
The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that Kevin Warsh, a fellow at the right-leaning Hoover Institution and former Fed governor, is Trump's current favorite to replace Powell, whose term ends next May. But Trump has previously hinted that he would pick Hassett.
“I think the two Kevins are great,” Trump told the Journal.
Hassett, for his part, on Sunday said that “in the end, the job of the Fed is to be independent.”
“In the end, it’s a committee that votes,” he said. “And I’d be happy to talk to the president every day until both of us are dead because it’s so much fun."
Director of the National Economic Council Kevin Hassett does a television interview at the White House, Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
BERLIN (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Sunday voiced readiness to drop his country’s bid to join NATO in exchange for Western security guarantees, but rejected the U.S. push for ceding territory to Russia as he held talks with U.S. envoys on ending the war.
Zelenskyy sat down with U.S. President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. The Ukrainian leader posted pictures of the negotiating table with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz sitting next to him facing the U.S. delegation.
Responding to journalists’ questions in audio clips on a WhatsApp group chat before the talks, Zelenskyy said that since the U.S. and some European nations had rejected Ukraine’s push to join NATO, Kyiv expects the West to offer a set of guarantees similar to those offered to the alliance members.
“These security guarantees are an opportunity to prevent another wave of Russian aggression,” he said. “And this is already a compromise on our part.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin has cast Ukraine's bid to join NATO as a major threat to Moscow's security and a reason for launching the full-scale invasion in February 2022. The Kremlin has demanded tha Ukraine renounce the bid for the alliance membership as part of any prospective peace settlement.
Zelenskyy emphasized that any security assurances would need to be legally binding and supported by the U.S. Congress, adding that he expected an update from his team following a meeting between Ukrainian and U.S. military officials in Stuttgart, Germany.
The U.S. government said in a social media post on Witkoff’s account after the five-hour meeting that “a lot of progress was made.”
Washington has tried for months to navigate the demands of each side as Trump presses for a swift end to Russia’s war and grows increasingly exasperated by delays. The search for possible compromises has run into major obstacles, including control of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, which is mostly occupied by Russian forces.
Putin wants Ukraine to withdraw its forces from the part of the Donetsk region still under its control among the key conditions for peace, a demand rejected by Kyiv.
Zelenskyy said that the U.S. had floated an idea for Ukraine to withdraw from the Donetsk and create a demilitarized free economic zone there, a proposal he rejected as unworkable.
“I do not consider this fair, because who will manage this economic zone?” he said. “If we are talking about some buffer zone along the line of contact, if we are talking about some economic zone and we believe that only a police mission should be there and troops should withdraw, then the question is very simple. If Ukrainian troops withdraw 5–10 kilometers, for example, then why do Russian troops not withdraw deeper into the occupied territories by the same distance?”
Zelenskyy described the issue as “very sensitive” and insisted on a freeze along the line of contact, saying that “today a fair possible option is we stand where we stand.”
Putin's foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov told the business daily Kommersant that Russian police and national guard would stay in parts of the Donetsk region even if they become a demilitarized zone under a prospective peace plan.
Ushakov warned that a search for compromise could take a long time, noting that the U.S. proposals that took into account Russian demands had been “worsened” by alterations proposed by Ukraine and its European allies.
Speaking to Russian state TV in remarks broadcast Sunday, Ushakov said that “the contribution of Ukrainians and Europeans to these documents is unlikely to be constructive," warning that Moscow will “have very strong objections.”
Ushakov added that the territorial issue was actively discussed in Moscow when Witkoff and Kushner met with Putin earlier this month. “The Americans know and understand our position," he said.
Zelenskyy said he spoke with French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday just before the talks with Trump’s envoys, thanking him on X for his support and adding that “we are coordinating closely and working together for the sake of our shared security.”
Macron vowed on X that “France is, and will remain, at Ukraine’s side to build a robust and lasting peace — one that can guarantee Ukraine’s security and sovereignty, and that of Europe, over the long term.”
Merz, who has spearheaded European efforts to support Ukraine alongside Macron and U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, said Saturday that “the decades of the ‘Pax Americana’ are largely over for us in Europe and for us in Germany as well.”
He warned that Putin's aim is “a fundamental change to the borders in Europe, the restoration of the old Soviet Union within its borders.”
“If Ukraine falls, he won’t stop,” Merz warned on Saturday during a party conference in Munich.
Putin has denied plans to restore the Soviet Union or attack any European allies.
Ukraine’s air force said that Russia overnight launched ballistic missiles and 138 attack drones at Ukraine. The air force said 110 had been intercepted or downed, but missile and drone hits were recorded at six locations.
Zelenskyy said Sunday that hundreds of thousands of families were still without power in the south, east and northeast regions and work was continuing to restore electricity, heat and water to multiple regions following a large-scale attack the previous night.
The Ukrainian president said that in the past week, Russia had launched over 1,500 strike drones, nearly 900 guided aerial bombs and 46 missiles of various types at Ukraine.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said that air defenses downed 235 Ukrainian drones late Saturday and early Sunday.
In the Belgorod region, a drone injured a man and set his house ablaze in the village of Yasnye Zori, regional Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov said.
Ukrainian drones struck an oil depot in Uryupinsk in the Volgograd region, triggering a fire, according to regional Gov. Andrei Bocharov.
In the Krasnodar region, the Ukrainian drones attacked the town of Afipsky, where an oil refinery is located. Authorities said that explosions shattered windows in residential buildings, but didn’t report any damage to the refinery.
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Ciobanu reported from Warsaw, Poland.
Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
The chancellory is pictured during talks between representatives of the U.S. and Ukraine in Berlin, Germany, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
Günter Sautter, left, foreign and security policy advisor to the Federal Chancellor, and former Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umjerow arrive for talks between representatives of the U.S. and Ukraine, at the Hotel Adlon, in Berlin, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (Kay Nietfeld/dpa via AP)
Jared Kushner, entrepreneur and former chief advisor to President Donald Trump, arrives for talks between representatives of the U.S. and Ukraine at the Hotel Adlon, in Berlin, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (Kay Nietfeld/dpa via AP)
Ukraine's Secretary of National Security Rustem Umerov, right, and Günter Sautter, Foreign and Security Policy Advisor to Chancellor Merz meet in Berlin, Germany, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
Steve Witkoff, special envoy of the United States, arrives for talks between representatives of the U.S. and Ukraine, at the Hotel Adlon, in Berlin, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (Kay Nietfeld/dpa via AP)
In this grab from a video provided by the Press Service Of The President Of Ukraine on Friday, Dec 12, 2025, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy records a video at the road entering of Kupiansk, Ukraine. (Press Service Of The President Of Ukraine via AP)
