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US presidential trips abroad have typically been an chance to display the strength of the United States on the world stage. The president's five-day tour through Asian nations, conversely, has been a show of the clout of the president – but also, at points, of that power's limitations.

The president's visits in Malaysia, Japan and Korea over the duration of the opening phase were an display in satisfying a at times mercurial president. It was an acknowledgement that Trump, with the flick of a document, could impose duties and further steps that have the capacity to harm the financial systems of export-oriented countries.

His meeting with Chinese leader Xi on Thursday, nevertheless, was a distinct situation.

It was a session of equals on the international scene, where the stakes for the two powers – for their economies, for their international prestige, for the well-being of their people – were enormous.

With China, Trump may flick his power, but those steps involve consequences. They carry a cost.

• Trump describes 'amazing' encounter with the Chinese leader but no agreement agreed
• Xi and the US leader find short-term ceasefire as Beijing plays longer game

For the opening segment, the president's latest entry into world politics was uneventful.

Each stop was marked by a mix of conventional economic talks – arrangements made under the shadow of Trump's "mutual" duties – and individual concessions that at moments verged on the obsequious.

In the Malaysian stop, the president gained entry to critical minerals and made progress toward finalizing trade arrangements with regional partners. He also oversaw a pact that should alleviate frontier issues between Thailand and Cambodia – the type of "peace agreement" the president enjoys to highlight.

In the Japanese leg, the president's helicopter flew past a Tokyo Tower lit red, white and blue – with a summit in golden.

Recently chosen Head the Japanese leader detailed $half-trillion in Japan's financial commitments in the United States and offered the American president a gift of two hundred fifty flowering trees for America's 250th anniversary, and a golf club and carrier that belonged to former Prime Minister Abe, the assassinated former prime minister who connected with the president in his previous administration.

She also became the most recent international head to suggest the president for his long-sought international honor.

Matching the effort, South Korea welcomed the president with guns firing a 21-gun salute and a military band that performed Hail to the Chief and the Village People song – the band song that has turned into a presidential event anthem.

Leader Lee Jae Myung held an "recognition ritual" for the US leader during which he awarded the US president his nation's highest medal and a model of an traditional ruler's coronet.

Lunch with Lee featured a "Diplomat's Sweet" of gold-covered chocolate squares. Afterward, the Koreans provided Trump fine beverage at an exclusive gathering in the president's recognition with six international heads present at the Asia-Pacific Economic Conference meeting.

In the United States, the president may be the target of "Anti-Authority" demonstrations by US citizens who disapprove of his limit-pushing expansions of executive authority, but during his East Asia tour he was treated like royalty.

And like the rulers of history, the president visited Korea demanding tribute – in the form of $200bn in cash payments, $20 billion a year, from Korea to the US, to be used at the direction of Trump's government. Approval on the conditions of those transfers helped ensure that the tax percentage on Korean exports to the United States would drop from 25% to under twenty percent.

The main event of the president's Asia trip came in its last moments, however, as he encountered the Chinese leader.

In that setting, the power dynamic between leaders of the world's two largest economies was decidedly divergent than the exchanges Trump had with his international peers in earlier stops.

Absent were the usual pomp and the spectacle. No military bands, no honour guards, without meticulously designed dining selections honoring bilateral friendship. Rather, the pair of counterparts and their key staff positioned themselves across a extended light-colored discussion surface in a plain armed forces facility just adjacent to the landing strip of the city of Busan's global terminal.

It was perhaps a demonstration of the high stakes that when the president made contact with Xi in the southern port, he looked