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US presidential trips overseas have traditionally been an occasion to demonstrate the power of the US on the world stage. The president's week-long tour through East Asia, by contrast, has been a display of the power of the president – but also, at points, of that power's constraints.

Trump's destinations in Malaysia, Japan and South Korea over the course of the initial days were an exercise in pleasing a sometimes volatile president. It was an admission that the leader, with the signature of a hand, could introduce duties and additional actions that have the capacity to devastate the economies of export-oriented nations.

His meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on the last day, however, was a distinct situation.

It was a meeting of peers on the world platform, where the stakes for both nations – for their markets, for their international prestige, for the welfare of their people – were immense.

With the Chinese, the US leader may wave his pen, but those steps entail consequences. They come with a price.

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For the first four days, the president's recent entry into global diplomacy was successful.

Each visit was punctuated by a mix of standard commercial discussions – deals made under the threat of Trump's "mutual" tariffs – and personal accommodations that at times verged on the subservient.

In Malaysia, the president obtained entry to essential resources and made advances toward finalizing economic agreements with ASEAN countries. He also oversaw a treaty that should ease frontier issues between Thailand and Cambodia – the kind of "peace agreement" the president loves to highlight.

In the Japanese leg, Trump's Marine One passed by a Tokyo Tower displayed red, white and blue – with a peak in gilded.

Recently chosen Prime Minister the Japanese leader outlined $half-trillion in Japan's financial commitments in the America and offered the US leader a gift of a quarter-thousand cherry trees for America's 250th birthday, and a sports gear and carrier that came from the late leader, the killed ex-leader who developed ties with Trump in his first term.

She also became the newest international head to suggest the president for his highly-coveted Nobel Peace Prize.

Matching the effort, South Korea received Trump with artillery firing a honor salute and a military band that rendered the leader's song and the Village People song – the band song that has become a political gathering theme.

President Lee held an "honour ceremony" for the US leader during which he gave the US president his nation's premier award and a replica of an traditional ruler's coronet.

Lunch with Lee featured a "Conciliatory Treat" of gold-encrusted chocolate squares. Afterward, the hosts served Trump vineyard wine at an intimate dinner in the president's honor with half-dozen international heads attending the regional summit conference.

In the United States, the president may be the target of "Anti-Authority" protests by the public who disapprove of his boundary-testing increases of presidential power, but during his regional tour he was received as royalty.

And like the kings of ancient times, the president arrived in Korea demanding contribution – in the shape of $200 billion in cash payments, $20bn a year, from South Korea to the United States, to be used at the direction of Trump's leadership. Approval on the conditions of those payments contributed to that the tax percentage on Korean exports to the America would drop from a quarter to under twenty percent.

The main event of the president's Asian tour occurred in its final hours, however, as he encountered the Chinese leader.

In that setting, the influence relationship between counterparts of the global top two markets was markedly different than the interactions the president had with his overseas colleagues in previous days.

Absent were typical pomp and the spectacle. Lacking military bands, no ceremonial troops, no carefully crafted menus marking shared goodwill. Instead, the both heads and their top aides sat across a large pale discussion surface in a plain military building just near the airstrip of the southern port's air transport hub.

It was perhaps a reflection of the high stakes that when Trump made contact with Xi in Busan, he looked