Trump's Asia Trip Features Deals, Deference and a Significant Final Meeting

American leader visits overseas have traditionally been an opportunity to demonstrate the power of the US on the international platform. Donald Trump's five-day trip through Asian nations, by contrast, has been a demonstration of the authority of the leader – but also, at moments, of that power's limitations.

The president's visits in Malaysia, Japan and South Korea over the span of the first four days were an exercise in catering to a sometimes mercurial US leader. It was an acknowledgement that the leader, with the flick of a document, could enact taxes and additional actions that have the potential to devastate the markets of export-oriented states.

His sit-down with China's president Xi on Thursday, though, was a distinct situation.

It was a meeting of equals on the world platform, where the consequences for the two powers – for their markets, for their global standing, for the prosperity of their populations – were significant.

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

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For the initial phase, the president's most recent foray into international relations was successful.

Each destination was characterized by a mix of standard economic talks – agreements made under the threat of Trump's "mutual" tariffs – and individual concessions that at moments verged on the deferential.

In the Malaysian stop, Trump secured rights to key materials and made progress toward concluding economic agreements with south-east Asian nations. He also oversaw a treaty that should alleviate frontier issues between Thailand and Cambodia – the type of "truce" the US leader enjoys to promote.

In Japan, the president's official aircraft flew past a landmark tower lit red, white and blue – with a peak in golden.

Recently chosen Head Sanai Takaichi detailed $550bn in Japan's financial commitments in the US and presented the president a offering of two hundred fifty sakura trees for America's 250th anniversary, and a sports gear and bag that came from former Prime Minister Abe, the assassinated past head who connected with the president in his initial presidency.

She also became the newest international head to suggest Trump for his long-sought peace award.

Not to be outdone, South Korea greeted Trump with cannons firing a 21-gun salute and a service ensemble that performed the presidential anthem and YMCA – the band song that has turned into a presidential event theme.

Head Lee held an "award event" for the US leader during which he awarded the president his nation's top honor and a copy of an historical royal headpiece.

Midday meal with the Korean leader featured a "Diplomat's Sweet" of gilded baked goods. Afterward, the Koreans offered Trump vineyard wine at an private meal in the president's honour with multiple global figures attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Conference summit.

In the United States, Trump may be the focus of "Anti-Authority" protests by US citizens who disapprove of his boundary-testing increases of executive authority, but during his Asian swing he was received as royalty.

And like the monarchs of old, Trump visited the Korean nation requesting tribute – in the shape of $200 billion in monetary contributions, $20 billion a per year, from South Korea to the United States, to be used at the discretion of Trump's administration. Approval on the conditions of those transfers assisted in that the duty level on South Korean goods to the America would fall from twenty-five percent to under twenty percent.

The central moment of the president's Asian tour came in its last moments, however, as he encountered Xi.

In that setting, the authority balance between leaders of the world's two largest economies was noticeably different than the exchanges the president had with his international peers in earlier stops.

Not present were typical pomp and the spectacle. Without any service ensembles, absent ceremonial troops, without meticulously designed meal plans honoring shared goodwill. By contrast, the pair of counterparts and their top aides sat across a long white discussion surface in a unremarkable armed forces facility just adjacent to the landing strip of the city of Busan's air transport hub.

It was perhaps a reflection of the major consequences that when the president exchanged greetings with Xi in the Korean city, he appeared