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US presidential trips abroad have historically been an opportunity to demonstrate the influence of the US on the international platform. Trump's multi-day swing through Asian nations, on the other hand, has been a display of the power of the president – but also, at points, of that authority's boundaries.

Trump's visits in Malaysia, Japan and Korea over the duration 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 tariffs and further steps that have the potential to damage the financial systems of export-oriented nations.

His meeting with Chinese leader Xi on the final day, however, was a completely different scenario.

It was a meeting of peers on the world platform, where the risks for each country – for their financial health, for their global standing, for the welfare of their citizens – were enormous.

With the Chinese, the president may use his pen, but those steps entail ramifications. They come with a cost.

• The US president describes 'amazing' talks with Xi but no pact reached
• The Chinese president and the US leader find temporary truce as Beijing plays longer game

For the initial phase, Trump's recent foray into international relations was smooth sailing.

Each stop was marked by a blend of traditional economic talks – arrangements made under the shadow of Trump's "equivalent" tariffs – and personal accommodations that at moments approached the obsequious.

In Malaysia, the president secured access to essential resources and made progress toward concluding commercial deals with regional partners. He also presided over a treaty that should ease border tensions between Thailand and Cambodia – the type of "truce" the American president prefers to tout.

In the Japanese leg, Trump's Marine One passed by a famous structure lit red, white and blue – with a summit in Trumpian gold.

Recently chosen Leader Sanai Takaichi outlined $half-trillion in Tokyo's funding in the America and presented the American president a gift of two hundred fifty sakura trees for the United States' 250th anniversary, and a golf club and bag that belonged to Shinzo Abe, the assassinated past head who developed ties with Trump in his first term.

She also became the most recent overseas counterpart to nominate the president for his highly-coveted Nobel Peace Prize.

Matching the effort, South Korea welcomed the president with guns discharging a traditional greeting and a military band that played the leader's song and YMCA – the musical group song that has become a Trump rally anthem.

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

Lunch with the Korean leader contained a "Conciliatory Treat" of gold-covered brownies. Subsequently, the hosts offered Trump fine beverage at an intimate dinner in the president's honor with six world leaders attending the APEC conference.

In the US, the president may be the target of "Anti-Monarchy" rallies by the public who disapprove of his authority-expanding increases of leader's control, but during his Asian swing he was handled as monarchy.

And like the kings of old, Trump came to South Korea seeking contribution – in the shape of $two hundred billion in cash payments, $20 billion a per year, from South Korea to the United States, to be allocated at the discretion of the president's administration. Approval on the details of those contributions contributed to that the tax percentage on South Korean exports to the America would fall from a quarter to fifteen percent.

The central moment of the president's regional visit took place in its last moments, nevertheless, as he encountered the Chinese leader.

There, the influence relationship between counterparts of the global top two markets was noticeably different than the meetings the president had with his international peers in earlier stops.

Absent were typical pageantry and the spectacle. Without any armed forces orchestras, absent ceremonial troops, without meticulously designed meal plans marking mutual national affection. Rather, the both heads and their key staff positioned themselves across a long white negotiating table in a unremarkable service structure just adjacent to the landing strip of the southern port's air transport hub.

It was perhaps a demonstration of the significant risks that when Trump shook hands with Xi in the southern port, he looked