I think the US president has always been a kleptocracy/oligarchy because its just impossible to get elected without rich donors and backing by government power brokers. But usually the corruption occurs behind the scenes, generally through phone calls and arrangements that benefit these gov't agencies, multinational corporations and investment groups. Trump is very blatant about bringing his friends in and very blatant about his war against the federal government. So it is unusually usually one-sided. His friends are also 'outside' polite society, with a lot of 'weird' elites.
People like Bernie and Reich are fighting for their side, the government which consumes our taxes with quite a lot of make work jobs and legalized corruption themselves..