🔗 Share this article

US presidential trips abroad have historically been an opportunity to demonstrate the power of the US on the world stage. Trump's multi-day tour through eastern Asia, by contrast, has been a display of the clout of the president – but also, at moments, of that influence's constraints.

The president's visits in Malaysia, Japan and South Korea over the course of the first four days were an demonstration in pleasing a at times mercurial American president. It was an admission that Trump, with the signature of a pen, could introduce duties and further steps that have the capacity to devastate the economies of export-oriented states.

His meeting with China's president Xi Jinping 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 global standing, for the welfare of their citizens – were enormous.

With Beijing, Trump may use his power, but such actions come with repercussions. They carry a price.

• Trump praises 'remarkable' talks with Xi but no trade deal reached
• The Chinese president and Trump establish short-term ceasefire as China adopts strategic patience

For the first four days, Trump's most recent entry into world politics was uneventful.

Each destination was marked by a blend of conventional trade negotiations – deals made under the pressure of the president's "equivalent" tariffs – and personal accommodations that at points bordered on the obsequious.

In Malaysia, Trump secured access to critical minerals and made headway toward concluding commercial deals with ASEAN countries. He also oversaw a treaty that should reduce border tensions between Thailand and Cambodia – the kind of "peace deal" the American president enjoys to highlight.

In the Japanese leg, the president's helicopter flew past a Tokyo Tower displayed American colors – with a top in gilded.

Recently chosen Prime Minister the Japanese leader detailed $550 billion in Japanese investments in the US and gave the US leader a offering of 250 flowering trees for the United States' 250th birthday, and a golf club and case that belonged to the late leader, the killed past head who bonded with the president in his first term.

She also became the latest overseas counterpart to suggest the president for his much-desired Nobel Peace Prize.

Not to be outdone, the Korean government greeted Trump with artillery performing a traditional greeting and a service ensemble that rendered Hail to the Chief and the classic tune – the band anthem that has become a Trump rally theme.

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

Midday meal with the Korean leader contained a "Diplomat's Sweet" of gold-covered brownies. Subsequently, the hosts provided Trump vineyard wine at an intimate dinner in Trump's honour with multiple global figures attending the APEC meeting.

In the America, the president may be the focus of "Anti-Monarchy" demonstrations by US citizens who oppose his boundary-testing increases of leader's control, but during his regional visit he was received as royalty.

And like the kings of history, Trump came to South Korea requesting payment – in the form of $200 billion in cash payments, $twenty billion a per year, from the host nation to the US, to be allocated at the guidance of the president's administration. Agreement on the details of those transfers contributed to that the tax percentage on host nation goods to the United States would fall from 25% to fifteen percent.

The main event of the president's Asia trip occurred in its final hours, nevertheless, as he encountered the Chinese leader.

At that location, the power dynamic between counterparts of the planet's biggest economic powers was noticeably divergent than the exchanges the president had with his overseas colleagues in earlier stops.

Absent were the usual pageantry and the spectacle. Without any armed forces orchestras, no protocol units, without meticulously designed dining selections honoring mutual national affection. Rather, the both heads and their top aides positioned themselves across a long white negotiating table in a plain military building just near the airstrip of the city of Busan's air transport hub.

It was possibly a demonstration of the significant risks that when the president shook hands with Xi in Busan, he appeared