I donāt get why anyone is surprised by this sort of thing.
Because the the idea that the US was founded as a meritocracy is a core cultural myth that's taught as fact to every new American. There's value to constantly repeating challenges to pervasive cultural myths. Won't change anything for us but might help a few in the next generation see past the bullshit sooner than they otherwise would.
There are a lot of middle class Americans to have gained power without being rich, first. They became rich as the rose up. Now it's questionable how they gained that wealth, but they did do it.
Money is the supreme value above all others in USA culture.
Let's be fair here. Money is the supreme value above all others in ALL of modern culture. Not just USA. If you have a billion dollars you can do basically anything you want, anywhere you want to do it.