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Presidential journeys abroad have historically been an occasion to showcase the power of the American nation on the international platform. Donald Trump's five-day swing through East Asia, by contrast, has been a display of the authority of the president – but also, at moments, of that power's limitations.

Trump's visits in Malaysia, Japan and South Korea over the span of the opening phase were an display in pleasing a sometimes mercurial American president. It was an recognition that Trump, with the stroke of a pen, could introduce taxes and other measures that have the capacity to harm the markets of export-dependent nations.

His meeting with China's president Xi Jinping on Thursday, though, was a completely different scenario.

It was a meeting of counterparts on the global stage, where the stakes for each country – for their economies, for their global standing, for the prosperity of their people – were enormous.

With Beijing, the president may flick his authority, but those steps involve repercussions. They involve a price.

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For the first four days, the president's latest foray into global diplomacy was uneventful.

Each stop was characterized by a blend of standard trade negotiations – agreements made under the threat of the president's "equivalent" tariffs – and special treatment that at moments approached the obsequious.

In the Malaysian stop, Trump obtained access to essential resources and made headway toward concluding trade arrangements with south-east Asian nations. He also led a agreement that should alleviate border tensions between Thailand and Cambodia – the type of "truce" the president prefers to highlight.

In the Japanese leg, the president's official aircraft soared near a Tokyo Tower lit US flag colors – with a peak in gilded.

Freshly appointed Prime Minister the Japanese leader described $550bn in Japan's financial commitments in the United States and presented the American president a offering of a quarter-thousand flowering trees for the United States' 250th anniversary, and a golf equipment and carrier that belonged to Shinzo Abe, the murdered past head who bonded with the president in his previous administration.

She also became the latest foreign leader to nominate the president for his highly-coveted Nobel Peace Prize.

Matching the effort, the Korean government greeted Trump with cannons performing a 21-gun salute and a service ensemble that rendered Hail to the Chief and the Village People song – the musical group song that has become a Trump rally standard.

President Lee Jae Myung held an "award event" for Trump during which he presented the president his state's top honor and a model of an ancient Korean dynastic crown.

Lunch with the Korean leader featured a "Peacemaker's Dessert" of gold-covered baked goods. Afterward, the hosts served the president vineyard wine at an intimate dinner in Trump's recognition with multiple world leaders participating in the Asia-Pacific Economic Conference summit.

In the America, Trump may be the focus of "Anti-Monarchy" protests by the public who oppose his limit-pushing expansions of presidential power, but during his regional visit he was treated like nobility.

And like the rulers of ancient times, the president came to South Korea demanding tribute – in the form of $200 billion in financial transfers, $20bn a year, from South Korea to the US, to be used at the discretion of the president's leadership. Consent on the conditions of those payments assisted in that the tariff rate on host nation exports to the America would fall from twenty-five percent to under twenty percent.

The central moment of Trump's regional visit occurred in its last moments, nevertheless, as he sat down with Xi.

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

Absent were typical pageantry and the spectacle. Without any military bands, without protocol units, no carefully crafted dining selections marking shared goodwill. By contrast, the pair of counterparts and their top aides positioned themselves across a long white negotiating table in a nondescript armed forces facility just adjacent to the landing strip of the southern port's international airport.

It was possibly a indication of the major consequences that when the president exchanged greetings with Xi in the southern port, he looked