President Donald Trump was perhaps the single greatest loser of money from 1985 to 1994, a bombshell New York Times investigation into his tax returns found Tuesday. But despite but the $1.17 billion he bled out on failed casinos, hotels and retail space during that time, he spent the decade telling Americans — the people who would one day elect him as their president — that he was a resounding success.

“There is no one my age who has accomplished more,” he boasted to Newsweek for a cover story in 1987, a year his business losses compounded to $4.5 million.

By that time, Trump had already been self-mythologizing about the basis of his wealth for years. “Some people have an ability to negotiate,” he told The Washington Post in 1984. “It’s an art you’re basically born with. You either have it or you don’t.”

Though Trump has long characterized himself as being self-made and claimed he only received $1 million from his father to launch his empire, investigations into his early earnings show he actually received about $413 million in 2018 dollars from his father, who repeatedly deployed financial safety nets to his son while helping him engage in lucrative tax schemes.

The same year Trump gave that interview to Newsweek, he released “Trump: The Art Of The Deal,” a memoir and business advice book that was integral in launching his career in the public eye. He began working on the book with a co-author in 1985. That same year, Trump’s business losses had mounted to $51.4 million.

The book ― the first of several business advice works he’d go on to publish ― helped make Trump a fixture on various talk shows. In a sit-down with David Letterman in 1988, a year Trump’s compiled losses totaled $46.6 million, Trump smiled along with the raucous laughter from the audience when Letterman asked him whether there was “any way a guy like you could go broke.”

“I would like to think that I could weather most [disasters],” Trump said, adding, “I think it’s a great time to have cash.”