The United States has lost its final triple-A credit rating from a major ratings agency, after Moody’s downgraded its sovereign debt to Aa1 on Friday, citing a worsening fiscal outlook and rising debt-servicing costs.
The decision delivers a symbolic blow to former president Donald Trump’s economic narrative, coinciding with the failure of his high-profile spending bill in Congress amid resistance from Republican fiscal conservatives.
Moody’s pointed to a “persistent increase” in government debt and interest payments that now exceed levels seen in similarly rated economies. The agency warned that federal deficits could reach nearly 9% of GDP by 2035 — up from 6.4% last year — due to growing entitlement costs, rising debt interest, and weak revenue intake.
It forecasts the U.S. debt-to-GDP ratio to climb from 98% in 2024 to roughly 134% within a decade.
The downgrade aligns Moody’s with S&P and Fitch, which both cut the U.S. from triple-A in earlier years, leaving the country without a top-tier credit rating from any of the three major agencies for the first time in modern history.
The White House dismissed the move, with communications director Steven Cheung attacking Moody’s Analytics chief economist Mark Zandi, posting on X: “Nobody takes his ‘analysis’ seriously. He has been proven wrong time and time again.”
Despite the pushback, analysts say the downgrade reflects a broader concern: “America’s fiscal house is not in order,” as one senior economist put it.