'Proven wrong time and time again': White House hits back at Moody's downgrade, targets economist Mark Zandi

US President Donald Trump

The White House has slammed the latest rating downgrade of the US government by Moody’s. In a post on social media post X, White House Director of Communications Steven Cheung hit back at economist Mark Zandi, who works for Moody’s. Cheung called the downgrade a political move. “Zandi is an Obama advisor and Clinton donor who has been a Never Trumper since 2016,” Cheung wrote in his post.

Mark Zandi, the economist for Moodys, 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

Dismissing the latest assessment, the White House official wrote, “Nobody takes his “analysis” seriously. He has been proven wrong time and time again.” So far, Moody’s has not issued any statement on these accusations.

The White House attack comes a day after Moody’s lowered the rating of the US federal government to Aa1 from gold standard of Aaa. Moody’s is the third rating agency that has issued a downgrade for the Trump administration. Before this, Fitch and S&P had also voiced concerns regarding ballooning debt and issued a downgrade for the US federal government.

In a statement, Moody's said: "We expect federal deficits to widen, reaching nearly 9% of (the U.S. economy) by 2035, up from 6.4% in 2024, driven mainly by increased interest payments on debt, rising entitlement spending, and relatively low revenue generation.''