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The District of Columbia is never the place you'd choose as the natural home for a mass-participation political rally of the right-leaning conservative variety.
Getting out a million patriots for a hastily convened Saturday afternoon frolic, billed as the "million MAGA march" and "Stop the Steal — DC" was always going to be a tall order.
In the event, it didn't happen.
Perhaps a fraction of that tally turned out — probably more than 50,000 — although, like everything in American politics, the number is heavily contested.
Whatever the figure, strolling up and back along Pennsylvania Avenue, from the White House to the Capitol, the US Supreme Court and back again was a revealing experience for the depth and potency of the conviction that lives on among at least a portion of the 72 million people who voted for Mr Trump.
Simply getting to Washington DC was, in itself, a statement of the power of belief that still drives them.
The ABC met political pilgrims who'd come in from Oregon, Texas, New Mexico and Florida, racking up hundreds of dollars in flights and accommodation, not to mention the risks of catching or spreading COVID-19.
There was a very powerful sense that the pandemic rates as only a distant and lowly consideration for those who answered the rallying cry; nearly all of them will have come from states with daily coronavirus case numbers higher than Washington DC's, so the risk of importing to this city must surely have been weighted and promptly dismissed before travelling.
The recommendation to wear masks was followed by only about a third, or one in four at most, an anecdotal measure but one broadly in line with compliance in many states, especially the southern Sun Belt ones where the belief is that the worst is behind them since rates peaked in Texas, Florida and Arizona back in the summer.
Republican middle America rallies behind Trump
Suspend the popular caricature of the typical supporter of Donald Trump being somehow marginalised, poor, angry and uneducated.
They didn't form the backbone of this MAGA demonstration.
White people did. Families did.
Republican middle America turned up, for the most part peacefully, despite the brooding presence of "patriot" militia, including the Proud Boys movement.
Their anger is palpable and although their belief that the November 3 election was "stolen" perfectly mirrors the tweeted thoughts of Mr Trump, they seem to hold it as a self-evident truth, not one they merely repeat through some blind faith in the 45th President.
"It is so easy to see", an immigrant from Vietnam — Lee, from Houston — told us, convinced that the poll was debased by Democrats.
"One thing is important; I am from Vietnam, so I understand how the country [my country — Vietnam] got taken away. It is so bad. I do not want to bring that to America. No way. We have freedom."
Anthony, also from Texas, is equally determined to right a perceived electoral wrong.
"This has not been a legitimate election. You see the crowd out here. There is a lot of energy within the country now to correct this," he said.
Gulf between opposing sides remains wide
Their conviction is at the core of the reconciliation project that the United States must eventually confront once all legal disputes and vote-counting controversies pass.
Sooner or later, and probably no later than Inauguration Day on January 20, 2021, a combination of leadership from the vanquished and gracious humility from the victor will help.
But if America is to find some semblance of national cohesion and belief in its democratic processes, it must surely have to take root with the people themselves.
Yet the gulf of understanding is wide and the will to lay down the rhetorical weaponry difficult to detect.
That much truly stood out as blue autumnal day gave way to the half-light of dusk in Washington DC.
The "million MAGA march" had long since passed on, leaving pockets of flag-waving Trump supporters to roam the streets in rambling, almost aimless directions.
Groups, including middle-aged men, women and children found themselves face to face with antifa groups they so despise as violent anarchists, after their conduct in the Black Lives Matter protests that swept the nation last summer.
Debate and reasoned disagreement were one route to take to lower the temperature and lift the tolerance levels a little.
But brutally, in scattered confrontations, those forms of considered conflict resolution were given only a moment's thought at most, before obscene abuse and the odd blow to the head were hurled freely.
The ABC filmed the aftermath of one incident, on 17th Street in DC's downtown area, in which a man was left bloodied after being attacked by anti-Trump protesters.
We also witnessed other confrontations where it was less clear who the aggressors were, in situations where locals, usually black, taunted the predominantly white MAGA marchers to leave Washington, only to be pursued into retreat themselves.
Meanwhile, Mr Trump was sitting in the White House tweeting about "tremendous evidence of widespread voter fraud" he regards as "unconstitutional".
If the MAGA rally crowd beyond his heavily fortified steel-ringed fence had taken time to read it, they'd doubtless applaud it as an accurate diagnosis of everything they believe ails the American democracy.
Every indication is they'll go on believing it for the next four years when Joe Biden is finally sworn in on January 20.
