The White House is scrambling after President Donald Trump’s high-octane promise of “Rocket Fuel!” for the economy has spectacularly fizzled, leaving a trail of political wreckage and soaring interest rates just months before voters head to the polls. The master dealmaker’s most critical negotiation—with the Federal Reserve—has utterly collapsed, a source close to the administration reveals, leaving the president’s economic legacy in tatters.

Insiders whisper that Trump’s hand-picked Fed Chair, Kevin Warsh, delivered a brutal reality check this week, coldly admitting inflation is running dangerously hot while offering no lifeline. The result? Borrowing costs have exploded, sending 30-year Treasury yields to a near two-decade high, a direct repudiation of Trump’s campaign pledge. The bitter irony? The president’s own policies—the sprawling data center projects he championed and the tariffs he initially imposed—are now identified by economists as key drivers behind the very rate hikes he claims to despise.

The political fallout is already catastrophic. That $827 billion price tag for servicing the national debt? It’s now a sizzling hot potato Republicans are desperate to hide, having already outstripped the entire defense budget. A shell-shocked GOP lawmaker, speaking anonymously, confessed the party’s midterm strategy has been obliterated. The plan was to march into November waving banners of 6% mortgages and a bipartisan housing bill signed by a triumphant president. Instead, Trump dismissed the bill as a “big yawn,” and mortgage rates are stuck at a crushing 6.66%.

White House flacks are now performing acrobatic spin, attempting to offload the mess onto the ongoing Iran conflict. Spokesman Kush Desai insisted rates will magically plummet once Trump “forces a successful resolution.” Yet, behind closed doors, the mood is reportedly one of panic. The president’s public bravado—proclaiming “the most successful environment that we’ve ever had” while growth limps at 1.5%—is ringing increasingly hollow as voters feel the pinch in their wallets and at the loan office.

With the next Fed meeting looming in September, markets are bracing not for the promised cuts, but for another punishing hike. Time has run out for the president’s economic miracle. The rocket has failed to launch, and the countdown to Election Day has begun.