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US presidential trips internationally have typically been an occasion to demonstrate the strength of the US on the global scene. Trump's multi-day swing through East Asia, conversely, has been a display of the clout of the president – but also, at times, of that power's limitations.

Trump's destinations in Malaysia, Japan and Korea over the duration of the initial days were an demonstration in satisfying a at times unpredictable president. It was an admission that the president, with the flick of a document, could enact duties and other measures that have the potential to damage the markets of export-oriented countries.

His discussion with Beijing's head Xi Jinping on the last day, nevertheless, was a completely different scenario.

It was a meeting of equals on the global stage, where the consequences for both nations – for their financial health, for their international prestige, for the well-being of their populations – were significant.

With China, the US leader may use his pen, but these moves involve repercussions. They carry a cost.

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For the opening segment, Trump's latest foray into international relations was successful.

Each destination was marked by a combination of traditional trade negotiations – arrangements made under the threat of the president's "mutual" tariffs – and special treatment that at moments bordered on the subservient.

In the Malaysian stop, the president secured rights to key materials and made progress toward finalizing commercial deals with south-east Asian nations. He also oversaw a pact that should reduce frontier issues between Thailand and Cambodia – the type of "peace deal" the American president loves to highlight.

In the Japanese leg, the president's helicopter passed by a famous structure lit US flag colors – with a summit in golden.

Freshly appointed Head Takaichi detailed $550bn in Japanese investments in the America and presented the president a gift of a quarter-thousand cherry trees for the United States' semiquincentennial, and a sports gear and case that was owned by Shinzo Abe, the murdered ex-leader who bonded with the president in his previous administration.

She also became the latest international head to suggest the president for his much-desired peace award.

Keeping pace, the Korean government welcomed the president with guns performing a honor salute and a armed forces orchestra that performed the presidential anthem and YMCA – the band tune that has turned into a presidential event anthem.

President the Korean president held an "award event" for the US leader during which he presented the US president his nation's top honor and a model of an ancient Korean dynastic crown.

Midday meal with the Korean leader featured a "Diplomat's Sweet" of gilded brownies. Later that day, the hosts served the president vineyard wine at an intimate dinner in Trump's honour with half-dozen international heads participating in the APEC meeting.

In the United States, the president may be the target of "No Kings" rallies by US citizens who reject his limit-pushing extensions of presidential power, but during his East Asia tour he was handled as monarchy.

And like the rulers of history, the president came to South Korea requesting contribution – in the guise of $200bn in monetary contributions, $twenty billion a year, from Korea to the United States, to be allocated at the guidance of the president's government. Agreement on the conditions of those contributions assisted in that the tax percentage on Korean goods to the US would decrease from a quarter to under twenty percent.

The main event of Trump's Asian tour came in its final hours, however, as he encountered Xi.

In that setting, the influence relationship between heads of the world's two largest economies was markedly distinct than the exchanges the president had with his international peers in earlier stops.

Absent were all the pageantry and the pageantry. Lacking service ensembles, without protocol units, without meticulously designed menus marking shared goodwill. By contrast, the both heads and their senior advisors sat across a large pale meeting furniture in a plain armed forces facility just off the runway of Busan's international airport.

It was likely a reflection of the high stakes that when Trump made contact with Xi in the southern port, he looked