White House Director of Communications Steven Cheung challenged Moody’s credit rating downgrade of the U.S. He called out Moody’s Analytics Chief Economist Mark Zandi in a post on X. "Nobody takes his "analysis" seriously. He has been proven wrong time and time again."
Moody’s announced on Friday that it had downgraded the U.S. rating "to Aa1 from Aaa." Maybe more importantly to some was the additional reference, "and changed the outlook to stable from negative."
Cheung said it was predictable. And political. Cheung said Zandi "is an Obama advisor and Clinton donor who has been a 'Never Trumper' since 2016."
White House spokesman Kush Desai additionally challenged Moody’s assessment. "If Moody’s had any credibility, they would not have stayed silent as the fiscal disaster of the past four years unfolded."
NBC reported that Desai defended actions to reverse a trend. "The Trump administration and Republicans are focused on fixing Biden’s mess by slashing the waste, fraud, and abuse in government and passing The One, Big, Beautiful Bill to get our house back in order."
A description on Moody’s website supports its 'sovereign' ratings, saying they are an "objective, independent, and non-partisan analysis of decades of fiscal activity."
Credit ratings are generally used to determine a creditor’s likelihood to default on a loan.
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