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US presidential trips internationally have traditionally been an occasion to demonstrate the power of the United States on the global scene. Trump's multi-day trip through eastern Asia, by contrast, has been a demonstration of the authority of the president – but also, at moments, of that power's limitations.

The president's visits in Malaysia, Japan and South Korea over the duration of the initial days were an display in satisfying a at times unpredictable US leader. It was an admission that the leader, with the stroke of a document, could enact tariffs and further steps that have the ability to devastate the financial systems of export-oriented countries.

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

It was a session of peers on the global stage, where the stakes for the two powers – for their financial health, for their global standing, for the welfare of their populations – were significant.

With China, the US leader may wave his power, but those steps come with consequences. They carry a cost.

• The US president praises 'remarkable' meeting with Xi but no agreement finalized
• The Chinese president and Trump reach brief pause as Beijing plays longer game

For the first four days, Trump's latest entry into world politics was successful.

Each stop was characterized by a mix of standard commercial discussions – deals made under the threat of Trump's "equivalent" tariffs – and special treatment that at times approached the deferential.

In Malaysia, the president gained entry to key materials and made advances toward finalizing commercial deals with south-east Asian nations. He also oversaw a treaty that should ease frontier issues between Thailand and Cambodia – the kind of "truce" the president prefers to tout.

In the Japanese leg, Trump's official aircraft flew past a Tokyo Tower lit US flag colors – with a peak in golden.

Recently chosen Head Takaichi detailed $550 billion in Tokyo's funding in the United States and presented the American president a offering of two hundred fifty sakura trees for America's semiquincentennial, and a golf club and case that belonged to Shinzo Abe, the murdered former prime minister who bonded with the president in his previous administration.

She also became the latest international head to nominate the president for his long-sought Nobel Peace Prize.

Keeping pace, South Korea received the president with artillery performing a traditional greeting and a service ensemble that played the leader's song and YMCA – the musical group anthem that has evolved into a political gathering theme.

Head Lee held an "honour ceremony" for Trump during which he gave the US president his country's premier award and a copy of an historical royal headpiece.

Noon repast with Lee featured a "Diplomat's Sweet" of gilded chocolate squares. Subsequently, the Koreans offered the president vineyard wine at an intimate dinner in Trump's honor with six global figures attending the APEC conference.

In the America, Trump may be the focus of "No Kings" demonstrations by US citizens who oppose his limit-pushing extensions of executive authority, but during his East Asia tour he was treated like monarchy.

And like the kings of history, the president arrived in Korea seeking contribution – in the guise of $two hundred billion in cash payments, $20 billion a annually, from Korea to the US, to be used at the guidance of Trump's administration. Consent on the details of those payments helped ensure that the tax percentage on host nation goods to the United States would drop from twenty-five percent to fifteen percent.

The main event of the president's Asian tour took place in its concluding phase, nevertheless, as he encountered the Chinese leader.

There, the power dynamic between heads of the world's two largest economies was decidedly different than the interactions Trump had with his foreign counterparts in prior visits.

Missing were all the pageantry and the spectacle. Without any armed forces orchestras, without ceremonial troops, without carefully crafted meal plans marking shared goodwill. By contrast, the both heads and their top aides sat across a large pale negotiating table in a unremarkable military building just off the runway of the southern port's global terminal.

It was possibly a demonstration of the significant risks that when the president exchanged greetings with the Chinese leader in Busan, he appeared