New York, the city that drives the nation even as it remains aloof from a certain native son. Photograph by Dimitry Avdeev

One of the many complexities that has come to light in the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus that is the Trump White House is the supposed New Yorkification of Washington D.C. The two cities have always had an uneasy relationship ever since Alexander Hamilton, perhaps the ultimate New Yorker, and Thomas Jefferson, perhaps the ultimate non-New Yorker, struck a deal that would make Washington the political capital of the country and New York, the financial one.

Even today, this remains an unusual arrangement but one that has worked for the United States. As Ric Burns notes in his superb “New York: A Documentary Film," the Hamilton-Jefferson bargain enabled New York to look outward to the rest of the world and become a cosmopolis. With the United Nations firmly planted in New York, you could argue that the city was and remains the capital of the world. This trajectory has had the antipodal effect on New York’s relationship with its fellow Americans, who have always viewed the city as a brutal but nonetheless romantic realm unto itself. Yes, Woody Allen movies and “Home Alone 2” (with a cameo by a certain developer-turned-president). But also “The French Connection” and “Taxi Driver.” (Go to Jakarta, a city very much like the New York of the 1970s, and you’ll find citizens who hold both views of New York simultaneously.)

It wasn’t until 9/11 that New York rejoined the country of which it has always been part. The terrorist attacks reminded New Yorkers that they represent the financial/cultural heart of the nation – and of the world. That’s why they were singled out. At the same time, the attacks gave all but the most mean-spirited a chance to admire what the city does best – take it on the chin and gut it out.

In return, the city rewards those who do the same. Listening to Wesley Schultz, the lead singer of the folk-rock band The Lumineers interviewed on PBS’ “Artists Den” reminded me of what a former photo archivist at the Daily News once said about coming to the city from Toronto (which witty actor-director Peter Ustinov once described as “New York, run by the Swiss”):

Come to New York with a chip on your shoulder, and the city will crush. Stay humble, work hard and it will open like a flower.

This brings us to White House communications director – I use the title loosely – Anthony Scaramucci and his expletive-laced rant against West Wing rivals like former chief of staff Reince Priebus and Steve Bannon. “Mooch’s” remarks to The New Yorker’s Ryan Lizza were supposed to epitomize the tough, fuhgeddabout New Yorker he and Trump are, but they have as much to do with the reality of New York as either “Taxi Driver” or “Home Alone 2.”

Most New Yorkers aren’t vulgarians, and they don’t unload about their colleagues to strangers, much less reporters, because – wait for it – they’re interested in keeping their jobs in a city where what you do is who you are.

There is, however, one way in which D.C. is becoming New Yorkified – especially under Trump – and that is its reliance on Wall Streeters like Secretary of the Treasury Steve Mnuchin. That is the inevitable byproduct of the Hamilton-Jefferson bargain and it leads to the question: Which city leads? D.C. may call the shots, but without Wall Street cash, it can do nothing. Or, in the words of Hamilton, our first secretary of the treasury, “Power without revenue is a mere bauble.” He let Jefferson have his agrarian dream of a capital on the Potomac River outside his beloved Virginia, because he knew in the end the Jeffersons of the world would have to come hat in hand to him and the city with the bucks. We are living in Hamilton’s world.

Trump, of course, is taking credit as only he can for a Dow headed toward 22,000. But, as usual, Trumpet has it backward. It’s Wall Street that’s keeping Washington afloat.

As anchor Sue Herera noted on CNBC’s “Nightly Business Report,” the Street has so far chosen to “focus on the fundamentals” and ignore the “castle intrigue” at the White House.

But at what point does the Street say enough is enough? When Trump starts a trade war? Or when the Russkie chickens come home to roost?

The day will come. No market rises forever. On that day, Trump will find out who the boss really is.