> doesn't reek of a system of crony capitalism and oligarchy?

It reeks of political corruption. Money talks and Trump talked the loudest AND was populist. As a politician, you can't go wrong pandering to the largest groups (e.g. california). Clinton's promises didn't really make any headlines and were saddled by any comparison to Obama's failures to deliver whatever people imagined he was going to do for them.

yeah, I almost didn't include that, but I think he still counts because he ran in on a wave of rampant populism, bowling over the entire Republican establishment in the process. He's absolutely an example of crony capitalism, but not necessarily an oligarchy. At the very least, not the same oligarchy as the political establishment.

America's forefathers were all wealthy men, it did not mean they were oligarchs. Was George Washington an oligarch? Jefferson? Madison?

Yes.

Then why did they give the country to the people, then? Why did they make it democratic when they had the golden opportunity to create a monarchy or some other form of totalitarianism.

It would be a stretch to say they gave it to the people. They 'gave' it to their own class of people. White, male, land owners and the emergent bourgeoisie/industrialists. Universal suffrage was a _long_ way off, and arguably never fully arrived in the U.S. due to ongoing racial politics.