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Presidential journeys abroad have historically been an opportunity to demonstrate the influence of the American nation on the international platform. Donald Trump's multi-day tour through East Asia, conversely, has been a display of the power of the leader – but also, at points, of that power's constraints.

The president's destinations in Malaysia, Japan and South Korea over the course of the first four days were an demonstration in catering to a at times mercurial American president. It was an admission that Trump, with the flick of a document, could impose duties and further steps that have the ability to damage the markets of trade-reliant states.

His sit-down with China's president Xi Jinping on the final day, however, was something entirely different.

It was a encounter of peers on the global stage, where the risks for the two powers – for their financial health, for their global standing, for the prosperity of their people – were immense.

With Beijing, the US leader may wave his pen, but such actions entail repercussions. They involve a toll.

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For the first four days, the president's latest foray into world politics was successful.

Each destination was marked by a mix of standard commercial discussions – agreements made under the threat of the president's "reciprocal" duties – and special treatment that at times verged on the subservient.

In Malaysia, the president obtained access to key materials and made advances toward finalizing trade arrangements with south-east Asian nations. He also oversaw a pact that should reduce territorial disputes between Thailand and Cambodia – the type of "truce" the US leader loves to highlight.

In Japan, Trump's helicopter passed by a famous structure illuminated red, white and blue – with a top in golden.

Recently chosen Head the Japanese leader described $half-trillion in Japan's financial commitments in the America and gave the president a gift of a quarter-thousand sakura trees for America's 250th anniversary, and a sports gear and bag that was owned by Shinzo Abe, the killed past head who developed ties with the president in his first term.

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

Keeping pace, the Korean government greeted Trump with artillery discharging a traditional greeting and a service ensemble that rendered the leader's song and the Village People song – the Village People anthem that has evolved into a presidential event theme.

President the Korean president held an "honour ceremony" for Trump during which he presented the president his nation's premier award and a replica of an traditional ruler's coronet.

Noon repast with Lee included a "Diplomat's Sweet" of gilded brownies. Later that day, the hosts offered the president vineyard wine at an exclusive gathering in the president's honour with half-dozen international heads participating in the regional summit meeting.

In the US, Trump may be the target of "No Kings" rallies by Americans who oppose his boundary-testing expansions of leader's control, but during his Asian tour he was received as monarchy.

And like the monarchs of old, Trump came to the Korean nation demanding contribution – in the form of $200 billion in cash payments, $20 billion a year, from the host nation to the United States, to be allocated at the direction of Trump's leadership. Agreement on the details of those transfers contributed to that the tariff rate on host nation goods to the United States would drop from twenty-five percent to fifteen percent.

The primary focus of Trump's regional visit came in its concluding phase, though, as he met with Xi.

There, the authority balance between leaders of the world's two largest economies was decidedly distinct than the interactions the president had with his overseas colleagues in previous days.

Absent were the usual ceremony and the display. Without any armed forces orchestras, without honour guards, without meticulously designed dining selections honoring shared goodwill. Instead, the two leaders and their key staff positioned themselves across a large pale discussion surface in a unremarkable military building just off the runway of the southern port's air transport hub.

It was possibly a reflection of the significant risks that when the president made contact with the Chinese leader in Busan, he looked