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US presidential trips internationally have typically been an chance to display the influence of the US on the world stage. Donald Trump's multi-day swing through East Asia, by contrast, has been a demonstration of the authority of the leader – but also, at times, of that authority's constraints.

Trump's visits in Malaysia, Japan and South Korea over the span of the first four days were an display in pleasing a at times unpredictable president. It was an recognition that Trump, with the signature of a pen, could enact taxes and additional actions that have the capacity to damage the markets of export-oriented states.

His meeting with China's president Xi Jinping on Thursday, however, was a distinct situation.

It was a meeting of equals on the world platform, where the risks for the two powers – for their financial health, for their world reputation, for the prosperity of their people – were significant.

With the Chinese, the president may flick his authority, but these moves involve repercussions. They involve a price.

• Trump describes 'remarkable' talks with the Chinese leader but no agreement agreed
• The Chinese president and Trump reach temporary truce as China adopts strategic patience

For the opening segment, Trump's most recent venture into international relations was successful.

Each visit was marked by a combination of conventional trade negotiations – agreements made under the threat of Trump's "equivalent" taxes – and individual concessions that at moments verged on the subservient.

In the Malaysian stop, Trump secured rights to key materials and made advances toward finalizing commercial deals with ASEAN countries. He also oversaw a agreement that should reduce border tensions between Thailand and Cambodia – the kind of "truce" the US leader prefers to promote.

In Japan, the president's Marine One soared near a landmark tower displayed American colors – with a summit in golden.

Recently chosen Head Takaichi detailed $half-trillion in Tokyo's funding in the United States and offered the American president a present of two hundred fifty sakura trees for America's 250th birthday, and a golf equipment and carrier that came from Shinzo Abe, the killed former prime minister who bonded with Trump in his first term.

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

Keeping pace, the Korean government welcomed the president with artillery firing a honor salute and a armed forces orchestra that performed the presidential anthem and YMCA – the band anthem that has turned into a presidential event theme.

President the Korean president held an "award event" for Trump during which he gave the president his state's top honor and a copy of an historical royal headpiece.

Midday meal with the Korean leader included a "Peacemaker's Dessert" of gilded brownies. Afterward, the Koreans offered Trump fine beverage at an private meal in Trump's honor with six world leaders participating in the regional summit meeting.

In the US, Trump may be the target of "Anti-Monarchy" rallies by US citizens who oppose his boundary-testing expansions of executive authority, but during his Asian tour he was treated like royalty.

And like the kings of old, the president came to the Korean nation requesting tribute – in the guise of $200bn in monetary contributions, $twenty billion a per year, from South Korea to the United States, to be used at the discretion of Trump's administration. Approval on the details of those contributions contributed to that the tariff rate on South Korean goods to the United States would drop from 25% to fifteen percent.

The main event of the president's Asian tour occurred in its last moments, however, as he met with the Chinese leader.

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

Missing were typical pageantry and the pageantry. Without any service ensembles, no ceremonial troops, no meticulously designed meal plans marking shared goodwill. Rather, the both heads and their top aides were seated across a extended light-colored negotiating table in a nondescript armed forces facility just near the airstrip of the southern port's international airport.

It was possibly a indication of the major consequences that when Trump shook hands with the Chinese leader in Busan, he appeared