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US presidential trips abroad have typically been an opportunity to display the influence of the United States on the global scene. The president's week-long trip through East Asia, on the other hand, has been a show of the clout of the leader – but also, at times, of that authority's limitations.

The president's visits in Malaysia, Japan and South Korea over the span of the opening phase were an exercise in pleasing a occasionally mercurial US leader. It was an admission that the president, with the stroke of a pen, could introduce tariffs and further steps that have the potential to harm the financial systems of export-oriented countries.

His sit-down with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Thursday, nevertheless, was a completely different scenario.

It was a session of counterparts on the world platform, where the stakes for each country – for their financial health, for their world reputation, for the well-being of their populations – were significant.

With the Chinese, the president may flick his authority, but such actions come with repercussions. They involve a cost.

• The US president hails 'remarkable' encounter with Xi but no pact finalized
• The Chinese president and the US leader find brief pause as China pursues extended strategy

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

Each visit was characterized by a mix of standard trade negotiations – deals made under the pressure of the president's "equivalent" duties – and individual concessions that at moments approached the deferential.

In the Malaysian stop, the president secured access to essential resources and made headway toward finalizing trade arrangements with south-east Asian nations. He also presided over a treaty that should alleviate frontier issues between Thailand and Cambodia – the type of "truce" the US leader prefers to promote.

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

Newly elected Head the Japanese leader described $half-trillion in Japanese investments in the United States and offered the president a present of a quarter-thousand sakura trees for the United States' 250th anniversary, and a golf equipment and case that came from the late leader, the killed past head who connected with the president in his previous administration.

She also became the newest foreign leader to propose Trump for his much-desired Nobel Peace Prize.

Not to be outdone, Korea greeted Trump with artillery discharging a honor salute and a armed forces orchestra that played the leader's song and the classic tune – the Village People tune that has turned into a presidential event standard.

Head the Korean president held an "award event" for Trump during which he awarded the American leader his country's highest medal and a copy of an ancient Korean dynastic crown.

Noon repast with the Korean leader included a "Peacemaker's Dessert" of gold-encrusted chocolate squares. Afterward, the South Koreans offered the president fine beverage at an intimate dinner in the president's recognition with multiple world leaders present at the APEC meeting.

In the America, Trump may be the subject of "Anti-Authority" rallies by Americans who oppose his limit-pushing extensions of executive authority, but during his East Asia visit he was handled as royalty.

And like the kings of history, the president visited South Korea seeking contribution – in the form of $200bn in cash payments, $20bn a year, from the host nation to the US, to be allocated at the direction of the president's government. Consent on the details of those payments assisted in that the duty level on Korean exports to the America would drop from twenty-five percent to fifteen percent.

The primary focus of the president's regional visit occurred in its last moments, though, as he encountered the Chinese leader.

In that setting, the power dynamic between leaders of the planet's biggest economic powers was decidedly different than the meetings the president had with his international peers in previous days.

Absent were typical pageantry and the spectacle. Without any military bands, no protocol units, without carefully crafted dining selections celebrating bilateral friendship. Rather, the both heads and their top aides positioned themselves across a long white discussion surface in a plain service structure just near the airstrip of Busan's global terminal.

It was likely a demonstration of the major consequences that when Trump shook hands with the Chinese leader in the southern port, he seemed