Trump's Asia Trip Includes Agreements, Knee-Bending and a Significant Final Meeting

US presidential trips abroad have typically been an chance to demonstrate the influence of the US on the world stage. Donald Trump's week-long tour through eastern Asia, by contrast, has been a show of the power of Trump – but also, at times, of that power's constraints.

The president's visits in Malaysia, Japan and Korea over the duration of the first four days were an demonstration in satisfying a occasionally volatile US leader. It was an recognition that Trump, with the stroke of a hand, could impose duties and other measures that have the ability to damage the financial systems of trade-reliant nations.

His meeting with Beijing's head Xi Jinping on the final day, though, was a completely different scenario.

It was a meeting of counterparts on the global stage, where the risks for both nations – for their markets, for their global standing, for the prosperity of their people – were significant.

With Beijing, the US leader may use his power, but these moves come with repercussions. They involve a cost.

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For the initial phase, the president's most recent venture into global diplomacy was smooth sailing.

Each destination was punctuated by a combination of conventional economic talks – agreements made under the threat of the president's "reciprocal" duties – and individual concessions that at points verged on the obsequious.

In Malaysia, the president secured entry to key materials and made headway toward concluding economic agreements with south-east Asian nations. He also oversaw a pact that should alleviate frontier issues between Thailand and Cambodia – the type of "peace agreement" the US leader enjoys to highlight.

In Japan, Trump's official aircraft soared near a famous structure lit American colors – with a peak in gilded.

Freshly appointed Head Sanai Takaichi described $half-trillion in Japan's financial commitments in the US and presented the American president a gift of a quarter-thousand flowering trees for America's 250th birthday, and a golf equipment and carrier that came from former Prime Minister Abe, the assassinated ex-leader who bonded with Trump in his first term.

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

Keeping pace, South Korea welcomed the president with cannons discharging a honor salute and a military band that played the leader's song and the classic tune – the Village People song that has evolved into a Trump rally standard.

President Lee held an "recognition ritual" for Trump during which he awarded the American leader his nation's top honor and a model of an traditional ruler's coronet.

Lunch with Lee featured a "Diplomat's Sweet" of gilded chocolate squares. Later that day, the hosts served Trump fine beverage at an exclusive gathering in the president's honor with six global figures participating in the regional summit conference.

In the US, the president may be the target of "Anti-Monarchy" demonstrations by the public who oppose his boundary-testing extensions of executive authority, but during his regional tour he was received as royalty.

And like the rulers of old, Trump arrived in South Korea demanding payment – in the shape of $200 billion in cash payments, $20 billion a year, from Korea to the America, to be invested at the discretion of Trump's leadership. Consent on the details of those contributions helped ensure that the tariff rate on South Korean goods to the United States would drop from a quarter to fifteen percent.

The main event of Trump's regional visit occurred in its concluding phase, nevertheless, as he encountered Xi.

In that setting, the power dynamic between heads of the global top two markets was decidedly different than the interactions Trump had with his foreign counterparts in earlier stops.

Missing were typical pomp and the pageantry. No service ensembles, without ceremonial troops, no carefully crafted meal plans marking bilateral friendship. By contrast, the two leaders and their key staff positioned themselves across a extended light-colored meeting furniture in a plain military building just adjacent to the landing strip of the city of Busan's global terminal.

It was perhaps a reflection of the significant risks that when Trump shook hands with the Chinese leader in the Korean city, he looked