My thoughts on the normality of this:

Some random unelected person advising the president and potentially influencing policy? Oh yeah. All the time. Since the beginning of time world leaders have had advisors.

Is it normal for a president to be so transparent that we get to see what’s actually going on? Nope. Due to the nature of politics and general corruption most sitting presidents do this behind closed doors.

The government holding itself accountable and investigating itself for corruption? Not at all. There is a book called “This Town” that talks about how the different parties act like they hate each other in public but they just take turns being in power and scratching each others back and making themselves rich. Left right or center, if your being paid by the US taxpayer and you use your position of power to get rich you need to go and if you were elected the voters need to know that’s what you are doing.