The "surprise" is that people expect the President to use those powers to work in the best interests of the country, rather than focusing on enriching themselve

The "surprise" is that people expect the President to use those powers to work in the best interests of the country, rather than focusing on enriching themselves by stealing everything they can for themselves and for those who bribe them. The executive is not supposed to be an adversarial position that the rest of the country needs to defend against. And if the President does abuse their letter-of-the-law powers, then we expect Congress to impeach and convict rather than enabling the behavior out of some sense of partisan grievances.