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American leader visits overseas have historically been an opportunity to display the strength of the United States on the world stage. The president's multi-day swing through East Asia, on the other hand, has been a display of the power of the president – but also, at moments, of that influence's boundaries.

The president's stops in Malaysia, Japan and Korea over the span of the opening phase were an display in pleasing a at times mercurial president. It was an recognition that Trump, with the stroke of a pen, could enact duties and additional actions that have the potential to harm the markets of export-dependent states.

His discussion with Chinese leader Xi on the last day, though, was a completely different scenario.

It was a encounter of counterparts on the international scene, where the risks for each country – for their economies, for their global standing, for the welfare of their citizens – were immense.

With Beijing, the president may use his power, but such actions come with consequences. They come with a price.

• The US president describes 'remarkable' talks with Xi but no agreement finalized
• The Chinese president and the US leader find temporary truce as China pursues extended strategy

For the opening segment, Trump's most recent entry into world politics was successful.

Each visit was marked by a blend of standard trade negotiations – agreements made under the threat of the president's "equivalent" duties – and special treatment that at times verged on the deferential.

In the Malaysian stop, the president gained access to key materials and made progress toward finalizing trade arrangements with ASEAN countries. He also oversaw a pact that should alleviate frontier issues between Thailand and Cambodia – the type of "peace deal" the US leader prefers to highlight.

In the Japanese leg, the president's helicopter soared near a famous structure illuminated American colors – with a summit in gilded.

Newly elected Prime Minister Sanai Takaichi described $550 billion in Tokyo's funding in the United States and gave the American president a offering of two hundred fifty flowering trees for America's semiquincentennial, and a sports gear and bag that belonged to former Prime Minister Abe, the murdered former prime minister who bonded with the president in his first term.

She also became the most recent foreign leader to propose Trump for his much-desired international honor.

Keeping pace, South Korea received the president with guns discharging a traditional greeting and a service ensemble that rendered the presidential anthem and YMCA – the musical group song that has become a presidential event standard.

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

Lunch with the Korean leader contained a "Conciliatory Treat" of gilded brownies. Later that day, the hosts offered Trump premium vintage at an intimate dinner in the president's honor with half-dozen global figures present at the APEC conference.

In the US, Trump may be the focus of "No Kings" demonstrations by Americans who reject his authority-expanding extensions of leader's control, but during his regional swing he was handled as royalty.

And like the kings of ancient times, the president visited South Korea requesting contribution – in the form of $two hundred billion in financial transfers, $20bn a annually, from the host nation to the US, to be used at the direction of Trump's administration. Approval on the conditions of those payments helped ensure that the duty level on host nation goods to the United States would drop from a quarter to under twenty percent.

The primary focus of Trump's Asia trip occurred in its last moments, though, as he met with the Chinese leader.

At that location, the power dynamic between heads of the global top two markets was decidedly distinct than the interactions Trump had with his international peers in previous days.

Missing were typical ceremony and the pageantry. No armed forces orchestras, no protocol units, no meticulously designed dining selections marking mutual national affection. Instead, the both heads and their top aides sat across a long white negotiating table in a plain military building just near the airstrip of the southern port's air transport hub.

It was possibly a reflection of the significant risks that when the president exchanged greetings with the Chinese leader in Busan, he appeared