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American leader visits internationally have typically been an opportunity to showcase the power of the United States on the world stage. Trump's week-long trip through East Asia, on the other hand, has been a show of the authority of the leader – but also, at moments, of that power's limitations.

Trump's stops in Malaysia, Japan and Korea over the duration of the initial days were an demonstration in pleasing a sometimes mercurial US leader. It was an recognition that the president, with the signature of a hand, could enact duties and further steps that have the ability to damage the economies of export-dependent states.

His meeting with China's president Xi Jinping on the last day, however, was a distinct situation.

It was a session of equals on the world platform, where the risks for each country – for their financial health, for their world reputation, for the prosperity of their citizens – were immense.

With the Chinese, the US leader may wave his pen, but these moves involve consequences. They come with a toll.

• Trump describes 'impressive' talks with the Chinese leader but no pact finalized
• Xi and the US leader establish short-term ceasefire as Beijing pursues extended strategy

For the opening segment, Trump's most recent foray into global diplomacy was smooth sailing.

Each destination was characterized by a blend of traditional trade negotiations – deals made under the shadow of Trump's "reciprocal" taxes – and individual concessions that at moments bordered on the deferential.

In the Malaysian stop, the president secured rights to critical minerals and made headway toward completing trade arrangements with regional partners. He also presided over a pact that should reduce frontier issues between Thailand and Cambodia – the sort of "peace agreement" the president prefers to highlight.

In Japan, the president's Marine One flew past a Tokyo Tower illuminated red, white and blue – with a summit in Trumpian gold.

Newly elected Leader Sanai Takaichi outlined $550bn in Japanese investments in the US and gave the US leader a gift of two hundred fifty flowering trees for America's 250th birthday, and a sports gear and case that belonged to Shinzo Abe, the murdered former prime minister who connected with Trump in his first term.

She also became the most recent international head to nominate the president for his highly-coveted peace award.

Not to be outdone, the Korean government greeted the president with guns discharging a honor salute and a service ensemble that performed Hail to the Chief and the Village People song – the band anthem that has evolved into a political gathering standard.

Head Lee Jae Myung held an "award event" for Trump during which he gave the US president his country's top honor and a model of an historical royal headpiece.

Noon repast with Lee featured a "Diplomat's Sweet" of gold-encrusted chocolate squares. Later that day, the hosts served the president fine beverage at an private meal in the president's honor with half-dozen world leaders participating in the APEC summit.

In the America, Trump may be the subject of "Anti-Monarchy" demonstrations by Americans who disapprove of his authority-expanding increases of presidential power, but during his regional swing he was received as nobility.

And like the kings of old, the president arrived in South Korea demanding tribute – in the guise of $200bn in monetary contributions, $twenty billion a year, from the host nation to the US, to be used at the discretion of Trump's leadership. Approval on the terms of those payments helped ensure that the tax percentage on Korean exports to the United States would drop from a quarter to fifteen percent.

The primary focus of Trump's Asian tour occurred in its final hours, however, as he encountered the Chinese leader.

There, the authority balance between heads of the world's two largest economies was markedly different than the interactions Trump had with his foreign counterparts in previous days.

Absent were all the ceremony and the spectacle. No service ensembles, without honour guards, without meticulously designed dining selections celebrating shared goodwill. Rather, the both heads and their senior advisors sat across a extended light-colored discussion surface in a unremarkable service structure just near the airstrip of Busan's international airport.

It was perhaps a reflection of the major consequences that when the president made contact with the Chinese leader in the Korean city, he looked