National Guard troops in DC are now armed, defense official says

The Trump administration will suspend public White House tours due to the construction that is scheduled to start soon on a new ballroom, multiple Congressional offices told ABC News Thursday.

Spokespeople for the official websites for several of these members said they were told by the White House that this pause would start in September and tours could be postponed "indefinitely."

The offices gave various reasons for the pause on tours, including "construction projects," "extensive renovations" and "because of construction on the new White House ballroom."

All tours of the White House are scheduled through a visitor's member of Congress.

The website for Rep. Don Beyer, D-Va., reads: "Unfortunately, the Trump Administration recently announced that it would pause all public tours of the White House beginning in September to accommodate construction projects. We apologize for any inconvenience to those who have submitted tour requests for this period, and will share further updates as soon as additional guidance is available."

Another office said they had reached out to the White House after the Washington Post initially reported that tours would be suspended.

Another congressional office said they were told White House tours were not immediately barred but rather would halt at the start of September.

A White House liason "confirmed that we can still book tours through the end of August, but they have cancelled all September tours. They said that they'll give more info after Labor Day," an aide told ABC News. A separate congressional office also said they were waiting for a more "formal announcement from the visitor's office" about how to move forward with scheduling public East Wing tours.

-ABC News' Allison Pecorin, Ben Siegel, John Parkinson, Michelle Stoddart and Isabella Murray.</p>

As the redistricting battle heats up after Texas passed their new congressional maps favoring Republicans, President Donald Trump is saying that Missouri is "now IN."

"We’re going to win the Midterms in Missouri again, bigger and better than ever before!" Trump wrote on his social media platform.

The post comes as California's Governor Gavin Newsom has vowed to change their maps to favor Democrats, with the California state legislature set to meet on Thursday. Trump has also put pressure on other states, including Indiana, to redraw their districts to favor Republicans.

-ABC News' Michelle Stoddart

The U.S. and the European Union released a joint statement on Thursday outlining a "Framework Agreement" on trade, weeks after President Donald Trump announced a deal in July.

"The United States and the European Union intend this Framework Agreement to be a first step in a process that can be further expanded over time to cover additional areas and continue to improve market access and increase their trade and investment relationship," the statement reads.

According to the statement, the U.S. will impose a 15% tariff on most goods from the EU, including pharmaceuticals and semiconductors. The U.S. will keep the current 27.5% tariffs on automobiles from the EU until it introduces legislation to reduce tariffs on a variety of U.S. goods.

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According to the joint statement, the EU intends to provide preferential market access for seafood and non-sensitive agricultural goods imported from the US, including tree nuts, certain dairy products, fresh and processed fruits and vegetables, processed foods, planting seeds, soybean oil, and pork and bison meat. It also plans to substantially increase procurement of military and defense equipment from the United States.

-ABC News' Zunaira Zaki

Republican Reps. Andy Ogles, Marlin Stutzman and Ralph Norman joined together to pitch a letter seeking a Nobel Peace Prize nomination for Trump following the summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska, as well as follow-on talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other European leaders.

In a letter to the Nobel Committee dated Aug. 19, the lawmakers cite Trump’s diplomatic efforts from his first term, including his engagement with North Korea, as well as his second term -- from Gaza to Ukraine.

“President Trump’s foreign policy reflects a consistent philosophy: that peace is best secured through strength, clarity, and direct engagement,” the letter notes. “He has shown a unique ability to bring adversaries to the table, to create openings where diplomacy had long failed, to achieve tangible outcomes while avoiding large-scale new U.S. troop deployments, and to bring greater fraternity among nations historically at odds with one another.”

The nomination is the latest effort from Trump loyalists in the Capitol to heap praise on the president joining efforts to add him to Mount Rushmore, put him on the $100 bill, create the $250 bill and put him on it, create a national holiday on his birthday, and rename Dulles International Airport for him -- among other proposals.

-ABC News' John Parkinson