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US presidential trips internationally have traditionally been an opportunity to showcase the influence of the United States on the global scene. The president's multi-day trip through East Asia, conversely, has been a show of the clout of Trump – but also, at points, of that influence's constraints.

The president's visits in Malaysia, Japan and Korea over the course of the initial days were an display in catering to a sometimes volatile US leader. It was an recognition that the president, with the signature of a pen, could enact duties and other measures that have the capacity to devastate the markets of export-oriented states.

His meeting with Beijing's head Xi Jinping on the final day, however, was a distinct situation.

It was a meeting of equals on the global stage, where the stakes for the two powers – for their economies, for their international prestige, for the welfare of their people – were significant.

With Beijing, the president may flick his pen, but these moves involve consequences. They involve a toll.

• The US president describes 'remarkable' talks with Xi but no agreement reached
• Xi and Trump establish brief pause as China pursues extended strategy

For the initial phase, the president's most recent venture into international relations was uneventful.

Each destination was marked by a mix of conventional commercial discussions – arrangements made under the threat of Trump's "reciprocal" tariffs – and individual concessions that at points approached the obsequious.

In Malaysia, Trump obtained access to key materials and made headway toward finalizing economic agreements with south-east Asian nations. He also oversaw a treaty that should alleviate frontier issues between Thailand and Cambodia – the sort of "truce" the US leader loves to promote.

In Japan, the president's helicopter flew past a Tokyo Tower illuminated US flag colors – with a top in golden.

Recently chosen Leader the Japanese leader outlined $550bn in Japanese investments in the US and gave the US leader a offering of a quarter-thousand sakura trees for America's semiquincentennial, and a golf club 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 overseas counterpart to nominate the president for his long-sought international honor.

Not to be outdone, South Korea received Trump with artillery performing a honor salute and a service ensemble that played the presidential anthem and YMCA – the Village People song that has turned into a political gathering anthem.

Leader the Korean president held an "award event" for the US leader during which he gave the president his nation's premier award and a copy of an traditional ruler's coronet.

Lunch with Lee included a "Diplomat's Sweet" of gold-covered chocolate squares. Later that day, the Koreans provided Trump vineyard wine at an private meal in the president's honour with half-dozen global figures present at the Asia-Pacific Economic Conference summit.

In the America, Trump may be the focus of "No Kings" rallies by the public who reject his boundary-testing expansions of executive authority, but during his Asian tour he was handled as royalty.

And like the monarchs of old, Trump visited South Korea demanding payment – in the shape of $200 billion in monetary contributions, $20 billion a year, from South Korea to the United States, to be used at the direction of Trump's government. Approval on the details of those transfers helped ensure that the duty level on host nation goods to the America would drop from twenty-five percent to under twenty percent.

The primary focus of Trump's regional visit took place in its final hours, however, as he met with Xi.

In that setting, the authority balance between heads of the global top two markets was decidedly different than the exchanges the president had with his international peers in earlier stops.

Missing were the usual pomp and the pageantry. No armed forces orchestras, no protocol units, no thoughtfully prepared meal plans honoring mutual national affection. Rather, the both heads and their key staff sat across a extended light-colored discussion surface in a nondescript military building just off the runway of Busan's global terminal.

It was likely a indication of the significant risks that when Trump exchanged greetings with Xi in Busan, he looked