WASHINGTON

US President Donald Trump remained adamant Tuesday that he will deploy military forces to the cities of Baltimore and Chicago, just hours after he was dealt a major legal setback over a similar effort in far-flung California.

"Well, we're going in. I didn't say when. We're going in," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office in response to a reporter's question about sending troops to Chicago, further denying that his actions are politically-motivated.

"I would love to do it now. We're going to do it anyway. We have the right to do it, because I have an obligation to protect this country, and that includes Baltimore," he added.

Trump's plans to emulate his deployment of federal troops in Los Angeles to other cities have stirred strong backlash from city and state officials.

"Here's the truth: Donald Trump is the last person in America who cares about families on the south and west sides of Chicago, those who are dealing with violence on a regular basis," Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson said at a press conference.

"Violence in Chicago is not because we have too many immigrants. It's because we have too many guns. So our message to Trump continues to be the same. Stop posting Truth Socials, stop making statements, stop threatening to send troops or ICE, stop defunding our communities. Just do your job and end the trafficking of guns into our city," he added.

The Democratic governor of Maryland, Wes Moore, where Baltimore is located, further pushed back on Trump's plans to send the military to the city, saying on the US social media company X’s platform that the city "just recorded the FEWEST homicides for August in a half-century – proving that with the right investments and resources we can succeed."

Trump has not announced any plans to crack down on crime in Republican-governed states or cities, despite several Republican jurisdictions having some of the highest crime rates in the nation.

Earlier Tuesday, a federal judge in California ruled Trump's controversial deployment of the National Guard and Marines to quell protests in Los Angeles is illegal.

District Court Judge Charles Breyer issued an injunction blocking the military from being used for policing but did not require the troops to be withdrawn from California. He found that the president violated a long-standing law known as the Posse Comitatus Act. The 1878 law generally bars the military from being used for civilian law enforcement.

Breyer pointed to statements from Trump in which he indicated he wanted to emulate the model he developed in Los Angeles in other major cities, saying the president is "creating a national police force with the President as its chief" and said there is "an ongoing risk that Defendants will act unlawfully" as he issued his injunction.