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US presidential trips internationally have typically been an occasion to showcase the influence of the US on the international platform. The president's multi-day swing through eastern Asia, by contrast, has been a display of the authority of the leader – 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 demonstration in pleasing a at times mercurial US leader. It was an admission that the president, with the flick of a hand, could introduce duties and additional actions that have the potential to harm the economies of export-oriented nations.

His meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on the final day, however, was something entirely different.

It was a encounter of counterparts on the international scene, where the consequences for both nations – for their financial health, for their international prestige, for the prosperity of their citizens – were immense.

With China, Trump may flick his pen, but these moves entail consequences. They carry a cost.

• The US president hails 'amazing' encounter with Xi but no pact reached
• The Chinese president and Trump reach short-term ceasefire as China plays longer game

For the opening segment, Trump's most recent venture into global diplomacy was successful.

Each stop was characterized by a combination of traditional economic talks – agreements made under the threat of Trump's "mutual" duties – and individual concessions that at points approached the deferential.

In the Malaysian stop, the president obtained access to key materials and made advances toward completing trade arrangements with ASEAN countries. He also led a treaty that should reduce territorial disputes between Thailand and Cambodia – the kind of "truce" the president enjoys to highlight.

In the Japanese leg, Trump's Marine One soared near a famous structure displayed US flag colors – with a summit in Trumpian gold.

Newly elected Prime Minister Takaichi outlined $half-trillion in Japanese investments in the America and presented the US leader a gift of a quarter-thousand cherry trees for America's semiquincentennial, and a golf equipment and bag that belonged to former Prime Minister Abe, the killed past head who developed ties with Trump in his first term.

She also became the most recent foreign leader to suggest Trump for his long-sought international honor.

Not to be outdone, the Korean government received the president with artillery firing a 21-gun salute and a service ensemble that performed the presidential anthem and YMCA – the musical group tune that has turned into a presidential event theme.

Leader Lee held an "recognition ritual" for the US leader during which he gave the American leader his country's highest medal and a copy of an ancient Korean dynastic crown.

Noon repast with the Korean leader contained a "Peacemaker's Dessert" of gold-covered baked goods. Later that day, the Koreans offered the president premium vintage at an exclusive gathering in Trump's honor with half-dozen international heads attending the regional summit meeting.

In the America, Trump may be the subject of "No Kings" rallies by US citizens who disapprove of his authority-expanding extensions of executive authority, but during his East Asia tour he was handled as monarchy.

And like the monarchs of old, the president arrived in the Korean nation seeking tribute – in the guise of $200 billion in cash payments, $20bn a per year, from Korea to the United States, to be allocated at the direction of Trump's administration. Consent on the details of those contributions helped ensure that the tax percentage on Korean goods to the United States would drop from a quarter to fifteen percent.

The central moment of Trump's Asia trip came in its last moments, however, as he encountered the Chinese leader.

In that setting, the power dynamic between counterparts of the world's two largest economies was markedly distinct than the meetings Trump had with his foreign counterparts in earlier stops.

Absent were all the pageantry and the spectacle. Lacking military bands, no honour guards, no thoughtfully prepared dining selections marking bilateral friendship. By contrast, the both heads and their key staff sat across a extended light-colored meeting furniture in a plain service structure just off the runway of the southern port's global terminal.

It was likely a reflection of the major consequences that when Trump shook hands with Xi in the southern port, he looked