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US presidential trips overseas have typically been an occasion to display the influence of the American nation on the global scene. Trump's week-long tour through Asian nations, conversely, has been a show of the authority of the president – but also, at moments, of that authority's boundaries.

Trump's destinations in Malaysia, Japan and South Korea over the course of the opening phase were an display in satisfying a at times unpredictable American president. It was an acknowledgement that the president, with the signature of a hand, could enact taxes and additional actions that have the ability to harm the markets of export-dependent states.

His sit-down with Chinese leader Xi on Thursday, nevertheless, was a distinct situation.

It was a encounter of equals on the international scene, where the stakes for each country – for their financial health, for their international prestige, for the welfare of their citizens – were immense.

With the Chinese, Trump may use his pen, but these moves involve ramifications. They involve a cost.

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For the initial phase, Trump's recent entry into international relations was successful.

Each destination was punctuated by a mix of conventional trade negotiations – arrangements made under the threat of Trump's "mutual" taxes – and special treatment that at times verged on the deferential.

In Malaysia, the president gained rights to critical minerals and made advances toward finalizing trade arrangements with regional partners. He also oversaw a agreement that should ease frontier issues between Thailand and Cambodia – the type of "peace deal" the American president prefers to tout.

In the Japanese leg, the president's Marine One passed by a Tokyo Tower illuminated American colors – with a peak in golden.

Newly elected Head Sanai Takaichi detailed $550bn in Japanese investments in the America and offered the president a present of a quarter-thousand sakura trees for the United States' 250th anniversary, and a golf equipment and bag that belonged to the late leader, the assassinated former prime minister who connected with the president in his initial presidency.

She also became the newest foreign leader to propose the president for his long-sought Nobel Peace Prize.

Matching the effort, the Korean government received the president with artillery firing a traditional greeting and a service ensemble that played the presidential anthem and YMCA – the band anthem that has become a Trump rally anthem.

President Lee held an "honour ceremony" for the US leader during which he awarded the president his country's premier award and a replica of an ancient Korean dynastic crown.

Noon repast with the Korean leader included a "Peacemaker's Dessert" of gold-covered chocolate squares. Afterward, the South Koreans provided the president vineyard wine at an private meal in Trump's honor with six world leaders present at the APEC meeting.

In the United States, the president may be the focus of "Anti-Authority" demonstrations by Americans who disapprove of his authority-expanding extensions of presidential power, but during his regional swing he was received as royalty.

And like the monarchs of old, the president arrived in Korea requesting tribute – in the shape of $two hundred billion in cash payments, $20bn a per year, from Korea to the United States, to be invested at the direction of Trump's leadership. Agreement on the terms of those transfers assisted in that the tax percentage on host nation exports to the America would drop from 25% to under twenty percent.

The central moment of Trump's Asia trip came in its last moments, however, as he sat down with the Chinese leader.

At that location, the authority balance between counterparts of the world's two largest economies was noticeably different than the meetings the president had with his foreign counterparts in earlier stops.

Missing were all the pomp and the pageantry. Lacking military bands, without ceremonial troops, without carefully crafted meal plans celebrating shared goodwill. Rather, the pair of counterparts and their senior advisors positioned themselves across a large pale negotiating table in a unremarkable military building just off the runway of the city of Busan's global terminal.

It was perhaps a demonstration of the significant risks that when Trump made contact with Xi in the Korean city, he looked