Ah, the rollercoaster ride of U.S. credit ratings! Cast your mind back to when Moody’s downgraded the outlook for the United States to ‘negative’ during the Biden administration without actually touching the credit rating itself. Fast forward to today, and we find ourselves in a peculiar twist of fate: under President Trump’s watch, Moody’s has officially downgraded the U.S. credit rating for the first time in over a century.
Yes, the once-untouchable triple-A rating has been stripped away, with Moody’s attributing this significant shift to the ‘growth in government debt,’ as reported by CNBC.
In a detailed report, CNBC highlights:
Moody’s Ratings has downgraded the United States’ sovereign credit rating by one notch from Aaa to Aa1—the highest possible rating. The agency cited concerns over the increasing burden of financing the federal government’s budget deficit and the escalating costs of refinancing existing debt amid high-interest rates.
“This downgrade on our 21-notch rating scale reflects an increase in government debt and interest payment ratios over more than a decade to levels that are significantly higher than those of similarly rated sovereigns,” the rating agency stated.
This downgrade is expected to slightly increase the yield that investors demand to purchase U.S. Treasury debt, reflecting a perceived rise in risk, which could subsequently dampen sentiment toward U.S. assets like stocks. Nevertheless, it’s worth noting that all major credit rating agencies still grant the United States their second-highest available rating.
In response to this significant downgrade, President Trump’s spokesperson, Steven Cheung, was quick to dismiss the validity of Moody’s analysis, labeling its lead economist as an ‘Obama/Clinton hack.’
“Mark Zandi, the economist for Moody’s, is an advisor to Obama and a donor to Clinton who has been a vocal opponent of Trump since 2016. His ‘analysis’ is not taken seriously by anyone, as he has been proven wrong time and again,” Cheung asserted.
Mark Zandi, the economist for Moody’s, is an Obama advisor and Clinton donor who has been a Never Trumper since 2016. Nobody takes his “analysis” seriously. He has been proven wrong time and time again. https://t.co/l1dUFM5BRY
— Steven Cheung (@StevenCheung47) May 16, 2025
