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American leader visits internationally have typically been an occasion to display the power of the American nation on the international platform. Trump's multi-day swing through eastern Asia, by contrast, has been a show of the authority of the leader – but also, at points, of that authority's constraints.

Trump's visits in Malaysia, Japan and South Korea over the course of the first four days were an display in catering to a occasionally volatile president. It was an acknowledgement that the leader, with the flick of a document, could enact duties and additional actions that have the potential to devastate the economies of trade-reliant nations.

His discussion with China's president Xi Jinping on Thursday, however, was something entirely different.

It was a encounter of equals on the world platform, where the risks for the two powers – for their economies, for their world reputation, for the welfare of their citizens – were significant.

With the Chinese, the US leader may wave his authority, but those steps entail ramifications. They involve a toll.

• Trump describes 'amazing' meeting with Xi but no pact finalized
• The Chinese president and Trump establish short-term ceasefire as China adopts strategic patience

For the first four days, Trump's recent venture into international relations was uneventful.

Each visit was characterized by a mix of standard economic talks – arrangements made under the threat of Trump's "equivalent" duties – and personal accommodations that at times bordered on the subservient.

In the Malaysian stop, Trump gained entry to critical minerals and made headway toward concluding economic agreements with south-east Asian nations. He also led a agreement that should ease frontier issues between Thailand and Cambodia – the type of "truce" the American president enjoys to highlight.

In Japan, the president's official aircraft passed by a Tokyo Tower displayed US flag colors – with a summit in golden.

Newly elected Prime Minister Takaichi described $550bn in Tokyo's funding in the US and gave the US leader a present of 250 flowering trees for the United States' semiquincentennial, and a golf club and bag that was owned by Shinzo Abe, the murdered past head who developed ties with the president in his previous administration.

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

Matching the effort, the Korean government greeted the president with cannons discharging a honor salute and a military band that played Hail to the Chief and the classic tune – the band anthem that has become a political gathering standard.

President Lee held an "award event" for the US leader during which he presented the US president his country's highest medal and a copy of an traditional ruler's coronet.

Midday meal with the Korean leader contained a "Conciliatory Treat" of gold-encrusted brownies. Later that day, the Koreans provided the president vineyard wine at an private meal in the president's honor with six world leaders present at the Asia-Pacific Economic Conference meeting.

In the United States, the president may be the subject of "Anti-Monarchy" protests by the public who reject his boundary-testing increases of leader's control, but during his East Asia visit he was handled as royalty.

And like the monarchs of history, Trump visited Korea demanding tribute – in the shape of $200bn in monetary contributions, $20bn a annually, from Korea to the United States, to be used at the guidance of the president's administration. Agreement on the details of those transfers assisted in that the duty level on Korean products to the America would fall from twenty-five percent to 15%.

The main event of the president's Asia trip took place in its last moments, though, as he sat down with the Chinese leader.

In that setting, the influence relationship between leaders of the planet's biggest economic powers was decidedly distinct than the meetings Trump had with his overseas colleagues in previous days.

Missing were the usual pageantry and the pageantry. Lacking service ensembles, without protocol units, without meticulously designed menus celebrating shared goodwill. By contrast, the pair of counterparts and their senior advisors positioned themselves across a long white meeting furniture in a plain military building just adjacent to the landing strip of the city of Busan's international airport.

It was possibly a reflection of the major consequences that when the president shook hands with Xi in the Korean city, he seemed