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Presidential journeys overseas have typically been an opportunity to showcase the influence of the United States on the international platform. The president's five-day swing through Asian nations, by contrast, has been a show of the power of Trump – but also, at moments, of that influence's limitations.

Trump's stops in Malaysia, Japan and Korea over the course of the initial days were an display in catering to a occasionally volatile American president. It was an acknowledgement that Trump, with the stroke of a hand, could introduce taxes and other measures that have the potential to damage the financial systems of export-dependent countries.

His meeting with China's president Xi on the final day, though, was something entirely different.

It was a session of peers on the global stage, where the consequences for each country – for their financial health, for their international prestige, for the prosperity of their populations – were immense.

With China, the president may wave his authority, but those steps entail repercussions. They involve a toll.

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For the initial phase, Trump's latest entry into international relations was smooth sailing.

Each visit was punctuated by a mix of traditional economic talks – arrangements made under the threat of the president's "mutual" duties – and individual concessions that at moments verged on the obsequious.

In Malaysia, the president obtained entry to critical minerals and made headway toward finalizing commercial deals with ASEAN countries. He also oversaw a pact that should ease border tensions between Thailand and Cambodia – the type of "truce" the president enjoys to highlight.

In the Japanese leg, the president's official aircraft soared near a famous structure illuminated American colors – with a peak in Trumpian gold.

Freshly appointed Leader the Japanese leader described $550 billion in Japan's financial commitments in the United States and gave the US leader a present of two hundred fifty sakura trees for the United States' 250th birthday, and a golf equipment and carrier that belonged to former Prime Minister Abe, the killed ex-leader who connected with Trump in his first term.

She also became the latest foreign leader to propose Trump for his much-desired peace award.

Keeping pace, Korea received Trump with cannons discharging a traditional greeting and a service ensemble that performed the presidential anthem and the Village People song – the Village People song that has become a political gathering standard.

President Lee Jae Myung held an "honour ceremony" for the US leader during which he awarded the American leader his country's highest medal and a copy of an ancient Korean dynastic crown.

Midday meal with the Korean leader included a "Peacemaker's Dessert" of gold-encrusted chocolate squares. Later that day, the Koreans served Trump premium vintage at an exclusive gathering in the president's honour with half-dozen global figures participating in the APEC conference.

In the US, Trump may be the focus of "No Kings" rallies by US citizens who disapprove of his boundary-testing expansions of leader's control, but during his Asian visit he was treated like nobility.

And like the monarchs of history, the president arrived in the Korean nation requesting payment – in the guise of $200 billion in monetary contributions, $20bn a per year, from South Korea to the United States, to be invested at the direction of the president's government. Approval on the terms of those contributions contributed to that the duty level on South Korean goods to the America would drop from 25% to 15%.

The central moment of Trump's Asian tour took place in its concluding phase, nevertheless, as he sat down with Xi.

There, the authority balance between heads of the planet's biggest economic powers was decidedly distinct than the meetings the president had with his foreign counterparts in prior visits.

Not present were all the ceremony and the pageantry. Without any service ensembles, no ceremonial troops, missing meticulously designed meal plans honoring shared goodwill. By contrast, the pair of counterparts and their senior advisors positioned themselves across a extended light-colored meeting furniture in a unremarkable military building just adjacent to the landing strip of Busan's air transport hub.

It was likely a reflection of the major consequences that when Trump shook hands with the Chinese leader in the Korean city, he looked