Thousands of mask-less Trump supporters rally in D.C., falsely claiming president won election

But that was before the people who oppose their hero showed up and the mood shifted, growing angrier as 300 or so counterprotesters delivered a message the president's most ardent backers were unwilling to hear: The election is over. Trump lost.

On stark display in the nation's capital were two irreconcilable versions of America, each refusing to accept what the other considered to be undeniable fact.

In brief but intense clashes, activists spewed profanity and shouted threats, threw punches and launched bottles. On both sides, people were bloodied, and at least 10 were arrested, including four on gun charges.

When darkness fell, the counterprotesters triggered more mayhem as they harassed Trump supporters and set off a large firework just outside a restaurant, prompting police to pepper-spray the instigators.

The earlier demonstrations were urged on by Trump, who refuses to concede to Joe Biden or allow a formal transition to begin. On Saturday morning, as the president's devotees remained in the District of Columbia to fight for him, he headed to Trump National in the Virginia suburbs for a round of golf.

After a week in which more than 750,000 Americans were diagnosed with the novel coronavirus, almost none of his backers were wearing masks. Among their ranks were white nationalists, conspiracy theorists and far-right activists carrying signs demanding action that was already being taken: "Count the legal votes."

Trump had thrilled them when his motorcade appeared on Pennsylvania Avenue shortly after 10 a.m., prompting fans to scramble to the side of Freedom Plaza to catch a glimpse.

"He drove right past me. I saw him. He waved right past me," one man said as he tried to collect himself.

A group of women huddled around a phone, looking at a video of Trump's appearance near a Walt Whitman quote inscribed in the stone beneath them: "The President is there in the White House for you, it is not you who are here for him."

Then the appearance of counterprotesters sparked bursts of conflict that could have become far more violent had police not worked to keep the feuding sides separate. When a small group holding bright orange "Refuse Fascism" posters arrived at the edge of Freedom Plaza, they were almost immediately surrounded by Trump fans shouting "USA! USA!" into their faces.

The women leading the tiny march fought their way up 14th Street, repeatedly breaking out of the crowd, only to be engulfed again.

"Trump, pack your s---! You're illegitimate!" they yelled into their megaphone,

One pro-Trump man attempted to gouge the opposition with a flag bearing the president's name. Another grabbed a woman's neon orange poster and hit her with it.

When the women made it to the barrier set up by police across the street, Trump supporters filled the entire intersection, blocking them. Police arrived on bikes and, after several minutes, moved the crowd back. Shortly after, the group began singing the national anthem.

Nearby, on the street beside inscriptions from Abraham Lincoln recognizing the District as a place of freedom, people piled atop a U-Haul truck with a flag of a gun and the words "Come and take it."

One man, wearing camouflage and a red MAGA hat, waved an American flag attached to a baseball bat.

Later, near Union Station, another altercation broke out.

Roland Biser, a 69-year-old Pentagon employee who had attended a pro-Trump rally, was driving home when he said he saw a young man throw a rock at a group of Trump supporters. The rock grazed a woman, he said, and may have hit someone else.

Biser pulled over as a crowd quickly surrounded the young man and three others with him, all of whom were Black. Nearly a hundred Trump supporters quickly surrounded them before a dozen U.S. Capitol Police officers rushed between them and separated the groups.

As police escorted the four young men away, the crowd taunted them, chanting "USA!"

"I didn't do anything!" said one of them, who had been handcuffed. The 21-year-old D.C. resident insisted that it was the Trump supporters who had come after him.

A few minutes later, police removed his cuffs off and let him go.

A family of four on Capital Bikeshare bikes - the father with an American flag tied around his neck like a cape - were cut off by a line of counterprotesters as they tried to leave a tense scene outside the Supreme Court about 1 p.m.

"Get out of our city!" a young woman in black yelled.

"You lost, losers!" shouted a man.

The father and his teenage son began to chant "USA!" and raised their fists as police officers surrounded the family and pushed them out of the crowd.

"Why would you bring your kids here? It's dangerous," observed a man nearby, a helmet on his head and respirator hanging around his neck.

On a day when the president's supporters touted a vast array of falsehoods, his spokeswoman, Kayleigh McEnany, offered perhaps the most ludicrous.

"More than one MILLION marchers for President @realDonaldTrump descend on the swamp in support," she tweeted, vastly exaggerating the crowd size.

The Trump believers had begun gathering at Freedom Plaza Saturday morning hours before the official rally.

"They think we're stupid," a young White man with a microphone told the crowd. "They're underestimating The Donald. They're underestimating The Donald's supporters."

"They're stupid!" a young White woman replied.

The speakers who addressed the aggrieved legions included Alex Jones, a discredited conspiracy theorist most famous for tormenting the families of school shooting victims, and Marjorie Taylor Greene, a recently elected congresswoman from Georgia who has promoted QAnon, which falsely alleges that famous Democrats belong to a cabal of Satan-worshiping pedophiles.

Among the rallygoers were members of the Proud Boys, an extremist group known for their black-and-yellow garb and endorsements of violence. Some wore flak jackets and helmets. "Stand Back, Stand By," read some of their shirts, referencing the president's directive to them during a September debate.

As conservative speakers at Freedom Plaza derided the news media, including Fox News, the Proud Boys marched down Pennsylvania Avenue, leading hundreds in chants of "F--- antifa!" and shouting down stray opponents who yelled "Black lives matter!"

"All lives matter!" they screamed back.

Marching with them was District resident Justin Anthony, who waved a satirical sign that read "Sue anyone who did not vote for this great American."

He led chants to the tune of "Count only Trump votes" and danced around in a large mock police uniform with the name "Officer Pudge" on its badge.

Almost no one got it, he said. They joined in, asked for pictures, cheered.

"It's crazy," he said. "Like, they really don't see how insane this is."

At midday, along the east end of Freedom Plaza, another lone counterprotester stood on the sidewalk holding a sign that read "Trump is the fraud." He wore a gray cloth mask.

A succession of Trump supporters approached the curb, unmasked, to offer their opinions of his solitary demonstration.

"Why didn't your mother abort you?" one screamed. "You're mentally disturbed, and you're a coward, and you're a f-----. I hope you get AIDS."

"I just feel strongly about the disinformation that's being peddled on the Internet about fraud in this election," said the counterprotester, a 40-year-old D.C. man who declined to give his name because he is a federal employee and feared repercussions at work.

A thin film of sweat had formed on his face. An elderly woman in red MAGA gear paused and stared at him, sadly.

"We feel bad for you that you can't see the truth," she said.

"I feel the same way about you," he replied.