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US presidential trips overseas have historically been an opportunity to demonstrate the strength of the US on the international platform. Donald Trump's multi-day swing through eastern Asia, on the other hand, has been a demonstration of the power of the leader – but also, at times, of that power's limitations.

Trump's visits in Malaysia, Japan and Korea over the duration of the initial days were an demonstration in catering to a occasionally volatile president. It was an recognition that Trump, with the flick of a hand, could enact duties and other measures that have the capacity to damage the financial systems of export-oriented states.

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

It was a meeting of counterparts on the world platform, where the consequences for both nations – for their markets, for their international prestige, for the prosperity of their populations – were significant.

With Beijing, the president may flick his pen, but such actions involve consequences. They involve a toll.

• Trump praises 'amazing' encounter with the Chinese leader but no pact reached
• The Chinese president and Trump establish temporary truce as China adopts strategic patience

For the first four days, the president's latest entry into global diplomacy was uneventful.

Each visit was punctuated by a combination of conventional commercial discussions – deals made under the pressure of the president's "mutual" tariffs – and individual concessions that at points approached the obsequious.

In Malaysia, the president secured rights to essential resources and made advances toward concluding trade arrangements with south-east Asian nations. He also presided over a pact that should alleviate territorial disputes between Thailand and Cambodia – the sort of "peace agreement" the president enjoys to promote.

In the Japanese leg, Trump's official aircraft passed by a Tokyo Tower lit US flag colors – with a summit in Trumpian gold.

Newly elected Head Takaichi described $550 billion in Japanese investments in the US and presented the president a present of a quarter-thousand sakura trees for the United States' semiquincentennial, and a sports gear and carrier that came from Shinzo Abe, the assassinated ex-leader who bonded with Trump in his initial presidency.

She also became the most recent foreign leader to nominate the president for his long-sought Nobel Peace Prize.

Keeping pace, Korea greeted the president with cannons performing a traditional greeting and a armed forces orchestra that performed the presidential anthem and YMCA – the musical group song that has turned into a Trump rally anthem.

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

Lunch with the Korean leader contained a "Diplomat's Sweet" of gilded baked goods. Later that day, the hosts provided Trump premium vintage at an private meal in the president's honour with half-dozen world leaders present at the regional summit conference.

In the America, the president may be the target of "Anti-Monarchy" rallies by US citizens who oppose his boundary-testing expansions of executive authority, but during his regional tour he was handled as royalty.

And like the kings of history, Trump came to South Korea demanding contribution – in the shape of $200bn in monetary contributions, $20 billion a per year, from South Korea to the United States, to be allocated at the guidance of the president's government. Consent on the details of those transfers contributed to that the tariff rate on South Korean products to the America would decrease from 25% to fifteen percent.

The primary focus of Trump's Asia trip occurred in its final hours, nevertheless, as he sat down with Xi.

In that setting, the authority balance between heads of the planet's biggest economic powers was markedly distinct than the interactions the president had with his foreign counterparts in previous days.

Missing were all the pomp and the spectacle. Lacking service ensembles, without protocol units, missing carefully crafted meal plans marking shared goodwill. By contrast, the two leaders and their key staff positioned themselves across a extended light-colored meeting furniture in a plain service structure just off the runway of the southern port's international airport.

It was possibly a demonstration of the high stakes that when the president exchanged greetings with the Chinese leader in Busan, he appeared