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US presidential trips internationally have historically been an occasion to showcase the power of the American nation on the global scene. Trump's multi-day trip through East Asia, on the other hand, has been a show of the power of the leader – but also, at moments, of that influence's constraints.

Trump's visits in Malaysia, Japan and Korea over the course of the opening phase were an display in catering to a occasionally mercurial American president. It was an recognition that the leader, with the stroke of a document, could introduce tariffs and additional actions that have the ability to harm the markets of trade-reliant nations.

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

It was a session of peers on the global stage, where the consequences for the two powers – for their economies, for their world reputation, for the well-being of their people – were significant.

With Beijing, the president may flick his power, but those steps come with repercussions. They come with a toll.

• The US president praises 'amazing' encounter with the Chinese leader but no agreement reached
• Xi and Trump reach brief pause as China adopts strategic patience

For the first four days, the president's most recent entry into international relations was successful.

Each stop was marked by a mix of standard economic talks – agreements made under the pressure of the president's "equivalent" duties – and special treatment that at points verged on the obsequious.

In the Malaysian stop, the president secured entry to key materials and made advances toward concluding economic agreements with south-east Asian nations. He also oversaw a treaty that should ease territorial disputes between Thailand and Cambodia – the kind of "peace agreement" the American president loves to promote.

In Japan, Trump's Marine One passed by a Tokyo Tower illuminated American colors – with a top in gilded.

Newly elected Head the Japanese leader described $half-trillion in Tokyo's funding in the America and presented the president a gift of a quarter-thousand flowering trees for America's 250th birthday, and a golf club and case that came from former Prime Minister Abe, the assassinated former prime minister who developed ties with Trump in his first term.

She also became the latest overseas counterpart to nominate Trump for his much-desired Nobel Peace Prize.

Not to be outdone, the Korean government greeted the president with guns firing a honor salute and a armed forces orchestra that rendered the leader's song and the classic tune – the musical group anthem that has evolved into a Trump rally anthem.

President the Korean president held an "honour ceremony" for Trump during which he gave the US president his country's highest medal and a replica of an ancient Korean dynastic crown.

Midday meal with the Korean leader featured a "Peacemaker's Dessert" of gold-encrusted baked goods. Subsequently, the South Koreans offered the president vineyard wine at an exclusive gathering in the president's recognition with half-dozen global figures present at the Asia-Pacific Economic Conference summit.

In the America, the president may be the subject of "No Kings" demonstrations by Americans who reject his authority-expanding extensions of executive authority, but during his Asian swing he was received as monarchy.

And like the monarchs of old, the president visited Korea demanding contribution – in the form of $two hundred billion in financial transfers, $20bn a per year, from the host nation to the United States, to be allocated at the direction of Trump's leadership. Approval on the conditions of those contributions helped ensure that the tariff rate on Korean exports to the US would drop from a quarter to under twenty percent.

The primary focus of Trump's regional visit came in its concluding phase, though, as he met with Xi.

At that location, the power dynamic between leaders of the global top two markets was markedly divergent than the exchanges Trump had with his foreign counterparts in earlier stops.

Absent were typical pomp and the spectacle. No military bands, absent honour guards, missing meticulously designed meal plans celebrating bilateral friendship. Rather, the pair of counterparts and their top aides sat across a large pale discussion surface in a unremarkable armed forces facility just off the runway of the southern port's international airport.

It was perhaps a indication of the major consequences that when the president shook hands with the Chinese leader in the southern port, he seemed