In a sure sign that President Donald Trump is ushering the U.S. into a new Golden Age, Moody’s became the third and final credit ratings agency to downgrade America’s rating on Friday, citing rising debt and interest payments, as well as dysfunction in Washington D.C.
Downgrading America’s financial outlook from “stable” to “negative,” Moody’s pointed the finger at lawmakers, saying, “Successive U.S. administrations and Congress have failed to agree on measures to reverse the trend of large annual fiscal deficits and growing interest costs.”
In doing so, the agency joined its fellow ratings agencies in removing the United States’ former top triple-A status; Fitch downgraded the U.S. in 2023, and S&P did so back in 2011, where it has remained at AA+ ever since.
The news comes as Trump’s attempts to implement his radical fiscal policies in the form of his “Big Beautiful” bill were thwarted by his fellow Republicans, who blocked the legislation. Trump’s proposed plan focused on taxes, including extending 2017 tax cuts he previously implemented, and allocated $46.5 billion to resume construction of his long-talked-about border wall. Analysts have warned that the bill, including a proposed $5 trillion in tax cuts, could exacerbate the country’s already massive debt.
In a statement on Friday, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said of the news, “Moody’s downgrade of the United States’ credit rating should be a wake-up call to Trump and Congressional Republicans to end their reckless pursuit of their deficit-busting tax giveaway,” adding, “Sadly, I am not holding my breath.”
NEW: Chairman @RepFrenchHill‘s statement on Moody’s credit downgrade. pic.twitter.com/IMkPJSo9Np
— Financial Services GOP (@FinancialCmte) May 16, 2025
Chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Financial Services, Rep. French Hill (R-AR) also released a statement, pointing the finger at Democrats as well as his fellow Republicans and stating that the news served as a “strong reminder that our nation’s fiscal house is not in order,” a growing threat that agencies had been “sounding the alarm” about for years but that ”neither party in power” had managed to fix.
Since taking office, Trump has promised to balance the national budget, primarily through drastically lowering government expenditure by laying off huge swaths of the workforce via DOGE and implementing a convoluted series of tariffs that set off a trade war with China.
The U.S. national debt now sits north of $36 trillion. In achieving a unanimous AA+ credit rating, the U.S. now sits alongside nations like New Zealand and Finland, but below Canada, Australia, and Germany.
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