US economy maintains its high S&P credit rating, analysts find Trump tariffs offset his tax cuts

The U.S. economy is keeping its AA++ S&P Global Ratings, with the analytic firm finding President Trump's tariffs will help soften the economic impact of his tax cuts.

The U.S. economy has had that score since 2011, when Standard and Poor's downgraded the world’s largest economy from AAA, Bloomberg News reported Tuesday. 

“Amid the rise in effective tariff rates, we expect meaningful tariff revenue to generally offset weaker fiscal outcomes that might otherwise be associated with the recent fiscal legislation, which contains both cuts and increases in tax and spending,” analysts wrote in a report.

When Trump began to rolling out his tariff-increase plan in February on U.S. trading partners, many economists predicted the U.S. economy and global financial markets would tumble.

S&P also projects the country's fiscal deficit won't deteriorate over the next several years, but it won't meaningfully improve either. The firm expects net general government debt to surpass 100% of U.S. GDP over the next three years, but it believes the general government deficit will average 6% from 2025 to 2028, down from 7.5% last year.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has said tariff revenues for this year could be “well in excess of 1% of GDP,” revising his previous estimate of $300 billion. The Congressional Budget Office estimates the recently passed budget law will add $3.4 trillion to the deficit over the next decade.