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American leader visits internationally have traditionally been an opportunity to display the strength of the United States on the global scene. The president's week-long trip through Asian nations, conversely, has been a show of the clout of Trump – but also, at points, of that power's boundaries.

The president's stops in Malaysia, Japan and South Korea over the span of the first four days were an demonstration in pleasing a occasionally mercurial president. It was an admission that the president, with the stroke of a hand, could introduce tariffs and additional actions that have the ability to harm the markets of export-dependent nations.

His meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Thursday, however, was something entirely different.

It was a meeting of counterparts on the international scene, where the consequences for each country – for their economies, for their world reputation, for the prosperity of their citizens – were immense.

With Beijing, Trump may use his pen, but those steps entail consequences. They come with a cost.

• The US president hails 'remarkable' meeting with the Chinese leader but no pact reached
• Xi and the US leader find temporary truce as Beijing adopts strategic patience

For the initial phase, Trump's latest entry into global diplomacy was uneventful.

Each destination was punctuated by a blend of traditional commercial discussions – arrangements made under the pressure of the president's "mutual" taxes – and special treatment that at times verged on the obsequious.

In Malaysia, Trump gained access to essential resources and made headway toward finalizing economic agreements with ASEAN countries. He also presided over a pact that should alleviate frontier issues between Thailand and Cambodia – the kind of "truce" the US leader loves to highlight.

In the Japanese leg, Trump's Marine One flew past a Tokyo Tower lit US flag colors – with a top in gilded.

Recently chosen Leader Sanai Takaichi described $550bn in Japanese investments in the America and offered the American president a present of two hundred fifty flowering trees for America's semiquincentennial, and a sports gear and carrier that belonged to former Prime Minister Abe, the killed former prime minister who bonded with the president in his previous administration.

She also became the most recent overseas counterpart to nominate Trump for his long-sought Nobel Peace Prize.

Not to be outdone, the Korean government greeted the president with artillery performing a traditional greeting and a armed forces orchestra that performed Hail to the Chief and the classic tune – the band tune that has become a Trump rally theme.

President Lee held an "award event" for the US leader during which he gave the US president his state's premier award and a replica of an historical royal headpiece.

Midday meal with Lee included a "Diplomat's Sweet" of gold-covered brownies. Subsequently, the South Koreans provided the president vineyard wine at an private meal in Trump's honor with six world leaders present at the APEC meeting.

In the United States, Trump may be the focus of "Anti-Monarchy" rallies by US citizens who disapprove of his boundary-testing extensions of executive authority, but during his regional visit he was handled as monarchy.

And like the kings of history, Trump came to South Korea requesting payment – in the guise of $200 billion in monetary contributions, $twenty billion a per year, from Korea to the US, to be used at the guidance of the president's leadership. Consent on the terms of those transfers contributed to that the tax percentage on host nation goods to the America would drop from twenty-five percent to under twenty percent.

The central moment of the president's Asian tour occurred in its concluding phase, however, as he met with Xi.

In that setting, the power dynamic between counterparts of the global top two markets was markedly distinct than the exchanges the president had with his foreign counterparts in earlier stops.

Missing were typical pageantry and the spectacle. Without any armed forces orchestras, absent ceremonial troops, missing carefully crafted menus marking mutual national affection. Instead, the both heads and their top aides sat across a extended light-colored meeting furniture in a unremarkable armed forces facility just adjacent to the landing strip of the city of Busan's air transport hub.

It was perhaps a indication of the major consequences that when the president shook hands with the Chinese leader in the southern port, he looked