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US presidential trips abroad have typically been an occasion to showcase the strength of the United States on the global scene. Donald Trump's five-day tour through East Asia, on the other hand, has been a demonstration of the authority of Trump – but also, at points, of that authority's limitations.

The president's visits in Malaysia, Japan and South Korea over the course of the first four days were an demonstration in satisfying a occasionally unpredictable US leader. It was an acknowledgement that the leader, with the flick of a document, could enact tariffs and other measures that have the ability to harm the economies of export-oriented states.

His discussion with China's president Xi Jinping on the last day, though, was a distinct situation.

It was a encounter of counterparts on the global stage, where the risks for each country – for their economies, for their international prestige, for the well-being of their citizens – were enormous.

With Beijing, the president may flick his pen, but such actions entail consequences. They come with a toll.

• Trump hails 'remarkable' talks with the Chinese leader but no trade deal finalized
• The Chinese president and the US leader reach brief pause as Beijing plays longer game

For the first four days, Trump's recent entry into global diplomacy was uneventful.

Each visit was marked by a combination of traditional economic talks – agreements made under the threat of Trump's "equivalent" tariffs – and individual concessions that at times verged on the obsequious.

In the Malaysian stop, the president secured entry to essential resources and made headway toward completing economic agreements with south-east Asian nations. He also presided over a pact that should reduce frontier issues between Thailand and Cambodia – the type of "truce" the American president enjoys to highlight.

In Japan, Trump's official aircraft flew past a landmark tower lit red, white and blue – with a peak in Trumpian gold.

Freshly appointed Prime Minister Sanai Takaichi detailed $550 billion in Japanese investments in the US and offered the US leader a offering of a quarter-thousand flowering trees for America's 250th anniversary, and a golf equipment and bag that belonged to Shinzo Abe, the assassinated past head who developed ties with Trump in his initial presidency.

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

Matching the effort, the Korean government welcomed Trump with artillery discharging a honor salute and a military band that played the leader's song and the Village People song – the band song that has evolved into a political gathering anthem.

President Lee held an "award event" for the US leader during which he gave the American leader his state's top honor and a replica of an ancient Korean dynastic crown.

Midday meal with the Korean leader included a "Peacemaker's Dessert" of gold-encrusted brownies. Subsequently, the Koreans provided the president fine beverage at an exclusive gathering in the president's honour with half-dozen world leaders attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Conference summit.

In the America, Trump may be the focus of "No Kings" rallies by Americans who oppose his authority-expanding expansions of leader's control, but during his Asian swing he was treated like nobility.

And like the rulers of history, the president arrived in South Korea requesting contribution – in the shape of $200 billion in financial transfers, $20bn a year, from South Korea to the US, to be used at the guidance of Trump's administration. Approval on the details of those transfers contributed to that the tax percentage on South Korean products to the America would fall from 25% to under twenty percent.

The central moment of Trump's Asia trip took place in its final hours, though, as he sat down with Xi.

There, the authority balance between counterparts of the world's two largest economies was markedly divergent than the exchanges Trump had with his international peers in earlier stops.

Not present were the usual pomp and the display. Without any service ensembles, absent honour guards, no thoughtfully prepared meal plans marking mutual national affection. By contrast, the both heads and their senior advisors sat across a extended light-colored discussion surface in a unremarkable military building just near the airstrip of the city of Busan's global terminal.

It was perhaps a demonstration of the major consequences that when the president made contact with Xi in the Korean city, he seemed