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American leader visits overseas have historically been an occasion to showcase the power of the United States on the international platform. Donald Trump's five-day trip through East Asia, conversely, has been a demonstration of the authority of the leader – but also, at moments, of that power's limitations.

The president's stops in Malaysia, Japan and South Korea over the duration of the initial days were an demonstration in satisfying a at times mercurial US leader. It was an admission that the president, with the stroke of a document, could enact duties and additional actions that have the capacity to harm the markets of export-dependent states.

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

It was a meeting of counterparts on the international scene, where the risks for each country – for their financial health, for their international prestige, for the prosperity of their people – were significant.

With Beijing, the US leader may use his authority, but those steps entail consequences. They come with a toll.

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

Each visit was punctuated by a mix of traditional commercial discussions – deals made under the shadow of the president's "reciprocal" tariffs – and special treatment that at moments verged on the obsequious.

In Malaysia, the president secured rights to essential resources and made progress toward finalizing trade arrangements with regional partners. He also presided over a pact that should reduce frontier issues between Thailand and Cambodia – the type of "peace deal" the US leader enjoys to highlight.

In Japan, the president's helicopter flew past a landmark tower lit US flag colors – with a summit in gilded.

Freshly appointed Prime Minister Sanai Takaichi outlined $550 billion in Japan's financial commitments in the America and gave the US leader a present of two hundred fifty flowering trees for the United States' 250th birthday, and a golf club and bag that belonged to the late leader, the killed former prime minister who bonded with the president in his first term.

She also became the most recent foreign leader to propose Trump for his highly-coveted Nobel Peace Prize.

Matching the effort, Korea received Trump with cannons discharging a traditional greeting and a military band that performed the presidential anthem and YMCA – the musical group song that has become a Trump rally theme.

Leader Lee Jae Myung held an "honour ceremony" for the US leader during which he presented the US president his state's top honor and a model of an ancient Korean dynastic crown.

Noon repast with Lee featured a "Peacemaker's Dessert" of gold-encrusted chocolate squares. Afterward, the Koreans served Trump vineyard wine at an intimate dinner in the president's honor with multiple international heads attending the APEC meeting.

In the United States, the president may be the target of "Anti-Authority" demonstrations by Americans who oppose his boundary-testing expansions of leader's control, but during his East Asia swing he was received as royalty.

And like the monarchs of history, the president arrived in the Korean nation seeking contribution – in the form of $200bn in monetary contributions, $20 billion a annually, from the host nation to the United States, to be used at the discretion of the president's administration. Consent on the conditions of those contributions helped ensure that the tariff rate on South Korean exports to the United States would drop from a quarter to 15%.

The primary focus of the president's Asian tour came in its last moments, however, as he sat down with Xi.

In that setting, the power dynamic between leaders of the planet's biggest economic powers was decidedly distinct than the exchanges Trump had with his international peers in earlier stops.

Absent were all the ceremony and the display. No service ensembles, absent ceremonial troops, without thoughtfully prepared meal plans honoring mutual national affection. Instead, the both heads and their top aides positioned themselves across a large pale discussion surface in a plain armed forces facility just adjacent to the landing strip of the southern port's international airport.

It was possibly a reflection of the major consequences that when Trump exchanged greetings with Xi in Busan, he appeared