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US presidential trips overseas have historically been an chance to demonstrate the strength of the American nation on the world stage. Trump's week-long trip through eastern Asia, conversely, has been a display of the power of Trump – but also, at times, of that authority's constraints.

Trump's stops in Malaysia, Japan and South Korea over the span of the first four days were an demonstration in satisfying a sometimes mercurial American president. It was an acknowledgement that the president, with the stroke of a hand, could introduce taxes and other measures that have the potential to devastate the economies of export-oriented states.

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

It was a meeting of peers on the global stage, where the stakes for both nations – for their financial health, for their world reputation, for the prosperity of their people – were immense.

With China, Trump may flick his pen, but these moves entail repercussions. They involve a cost.

• The US president praises 'impressive' meeting with Xi but no pact agreed
• The Chinese president and the US leader establish short-term ceasefire as China pursues extended strategy

For the initial phase, Trump's latest entry into world politics was uneventful.

Each visit was marked by a mix of standard commercial discussions – arrangements made under the shadow of Trump's "reciprocal" taxes – and special treatment that at moments bordered on the obsequious.

In the Malaysian stop, Trump obtained access to critical minerals and made progress toward completing economic agreements with regional partners. He also presided over a pact that should ease territorial disputes between Thailand and Cambodia – the sort of "peace agreement" the US leader loves to promote.

In the Japanese leg, Trump's helicopter flew past a Tokyo Tower lit American colors – with a peak in golden.

Recently chosen Leader Sanai Takaichi detailed $550 billion in Japanese investments in the America and gave the US leader a offering of two hundred fifty flowering trees for the United States' semiquincentennial, and a golf club and bag that was owned by Shinzo Abe, the killed ex-leader who bonded with the president in his initial presidency.

She also became the latest international head to suggest the president for his much-desired peace award.

Not to be outdone, South Korea received Trump with guns firing a honor salute and a armed forces orchestra that rendered Hail to the Chief and YMCA – the Village People anthem that has evolved into a Trump rally anthem.

President the Korean president held an "award event" for the US leader during which he awarded the American leader his nation's top honor and a replica of an ancient Korean dynastic crown.

Midday meal with Lee included a "Diplomat's Sweet" of gold-covered baked goods. Later that day, the Koreans served the president vineyard wine at an intimate dinner in the president's recognition with multiple world leaders attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Conference meeting.

In the America, the president may be the target of "No Kings" demonstrations by Americans who oppose his boundary-testing extensions of executive authority, but during his regional visit he was received as nobility.

And like the rulers of old, the president came to Korea demanding tribute – in the guise of $200 billion in financial transfers, $20bn a year, from the host nation to the US, to be used at the direction of the president's government. Agreement on the terms of those contributions helped ensure that the tax percentage on host nation goods to the US would fall from 25% to 15%.

The main event of the president's regional visit came in its concluding phase, however, as he sat down with the Chinese leader.

At that location, the influence relationship between leaders of the world's two largest economies was markedly divergent than the exchanges Trump had with his international peers in earlier stops.

Absent were typical pomp and the pageantry. No service ensembles, without honour guards, without carefully crafted meal plans marking bilateral friendship. By contrast, the both heads and their key staff sat across a extended light-colored negotiating table in a unremarkable armed forces facility just off the runway of Busan's global terminal.

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