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US presidential trips internationally have traditionally been an chance to showcase the strength of the United States on the global scene. The president's week-long swing through East Asia, conversely, has been a show of the authority of the president – but also, at moments, of that influence's constraints.

The president's destinations in Malaysia, Japan and South Korea over the duration of the initial days were an exercise in pleasing a at times mercurial American president. It was an recognition that the president, with the stroke of a hand, could enact duties and other measures that have the potential to devastate the economies of export-oriented states.

His meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on the last day, though, was a completely different scenario.

It was a meeting of equals on the global stage, where the consequences for both nations – for their markets, for their global standing, for the well-being of their citizens – were significant.

With the Chinese, the US leader may use his pen, but those steps involve repercussions. They involve a price.

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

Each stop was characterized by a blend of conventional commercial discussions – agreements made under the pressure of the president's "mutual" taxes – and special treatment that at points approached the obsequious.

In Malaysia, the president obtained rights to key materials and made headway toward finalizing economic agreements with regional partners. He also presided over a treaty that should ease border tensions between Thailand and Cambodia – the type of "truce" the US leader enjoys to highlight.

In the Japanese leg, the president's Marine One flew past a landmark tower lit American colors – with a summit in golden.

Freshly appointed Prime Minister the Japanese leader detailed $half-trillion in Japanese investments in the US and presented the president a present of 250 flowering trees for the United States' semiquincentennial, and a golf club and carrier that was owned by Shinzo Abe, the murdered ex-leader who bonded with Trump in his first term.

She also became the newest foreign leader to nominate the president for his highly-coveted peace award.

Matching the effort, the Korean government received the president with guns performing a honor salute and a service ensemble that performed the presidential anthem and YMCA – the musical group song that has evolved into a Trump rally standard.

President the Korean president held an "recognition ritual" for the US leader during which he presented the president his nation's highest medal and a copy of an traditional ruler's coronet.

Noon repast with the Korean leader featured a "Peacemaker's Dessert" of gold-covered baked goods. Later that day, the South Koreans provided Trump vineyard wine at an exclusive gathering in the president's recognition with half-dozen world leaders attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Conference meeting.

In the US, Trump may be the target of "Anti-Monarchy" protests by Americans who disapprove of his authority-expanding expansions of leader's control, but during his East Asia tour he was received as monarchy.

And like the rulers of ancient times, the president came to the Korean nation requesting tribute – in the guise of $two hundred billion in cash payments, $20 billion a per year, from South Korea to the US, to be allocated at the discretion of the president's leadership. Approval on the terms of those payments contributed to that the duty level on Korean exports to the America would decrease from twenty-five percent to fifteen percent.

The central moment of Trump's regional visit took place in its last moments, nevertheless, as he met with Xi.

At that location, the influence relationship between heads of the global top two markets was decidedly divergent than the exchanges the president had with his foreign counterparts in earlier stops.

Absent were all the ceremony and the pageantry. No service ensembles, absent protocol units, missing carefully crafted dining selections celebrating mutual national affection. Rather, the two leaders and their senior advisors sat across a extended light-colored meeting furniture in a plain service structure just near the airstrip of Busan's air transport hub.

It was perhaps a reflection of the high stakes that when Trump exchanged greetings with Xi in the Korean city, he looked