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American leader visits overseas have historically been an occasion to demonstrate the power of the American nation on the international platform. Trump's five-day swing through Asian nations, by contrast, has been a show of the clout of the president – but also, at moments, of that power's boundaries.

The president's stops in Malaysia, Japan and Korea over the course of the initial days were an display in pleasing a sometimes unpredictable American president. It was an recognition that the president, with the stroke of a pen, could impose duties and additional actions that have the potential to harm the markets of trade-reliant countries.

His discussion with Beijing's head Xi Jinping on the final day, though, was a distinct situation.

It was a session of peers on the world platform, where the risks for the two powers – for their economies, for their global standing, for the well-being of their people – were enormous.

With Beijing, the US leader may use his authority, but those steps come with ramifications. They come with a cost.

• The US president hails 'remarkable' encounter with the Chinese leader but no trade deal agreed
• Xi and Trump establish brief pause as Beijing pursues extended strategy

For the opening segment, the president's most recent entry into international relations was smooth sailing.

Each visit was characterized by a combination of standard trade negotiations – agreements made under the pressure of Trump's "equivalent" duties – and special treatment that at times verged on the subservient.

In the Malaysian stop, Trump obtained rights to key materials and made progress toward completing trade arrangements with ASEAN countries. He also led a pact that should alleviate frontier issues between Thailand and Cambodia – the kind of "truce" the American president loves to promote.

In Japan, the president's helicopter passed by a landmark tower lit American colors – with a summit in gilded.

Recently chosen Leader Sanai Takaichi detailed $half-trillion in Japanese investments in the United States and gave the US leader a gift of a quarter-thousand sakura trees for the United States' 250th birthday, and a golf club and case that was owned by former Prime Minister Abe, the killed former prime minister who connected with Trump in his previous administration.

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

Keeping pace, Korea greeted Trump with artillery firing a 21-gun salute and a military band that performed the leader's song and the classic tune – the Village People song that has turned into a political gathering theme.

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

Midday meal with the Korean leader included a "Peacemaker's Dessert" of gold-covered brownies. Subsequently, the South Koreans served the president vineyard wine at an private meal in the president's honor with multiple world leaders present at the Asia-Pacific Economic Conference meeting.

In the America, Trump may be the target of "No Kings" demonstrations by the public who reject his boundary-testing increases of executive authority, but during his regional tour he was handled as monarchy.

And like the monarchs of ancient times, Trump visited Korea requesting contribution – in the shape of $200bn in cash payments, $20bn a annually, from the host nation to the America, to be used at the discretion of the president's administration. Consent on the conditions of those payments helped ensure that the duty level on South Korean goods to the US would fall from a quarter to under twenty percent.

The primary focus of Trump's Asian tour occurred in its concluding phase, however, as he encountered the Chinese leader.

At that location, the authority balance between leaders of the world's two largest economies was decidedly different than the interactions the president had with his international peers in prior visits.

Absent were the usual pomp and the spectacle. Lacking armed forces orchestras, absent honour guards, without meticulously designed menus celebrating bilateral friendship. Rather, the two leaders and their senior advisors sat across a extended light-colored discussion surface in a plain service structure just off the runway of the southern port's international airport.

It was perhaps a indication of the significant risks that when Trump shook hands with Xi in the Korean city, he appeared