Andy Burnham duped into exchanging texts with fraudster posing as Trump official in major security scare

NewsPolitics ANDY Burnham exchanged messages with a fraudster posing as Donald Trump’s chief of staff in a major security scare. The PM was duped by an unknown individual pretending to be Susie Wiles – one of the most influential figures in the White House. Prime Minister Andy Burnham Credit: PA Donald Trump’s chief of staff Susie Wiles Credit: Reuters It is understood only a handful of messages were exchanged before Mr Burnham became suspicious and they contained nothing significant. But the alarm was so serious officials at the British Embassy in Washington raised it directly with their White House counterparts, according to Politico. Sign up for the Politics newsletter Thank you! The incident was quickly reported to the appropriate authorities. Downing Street yesterday refused to reveal what was discussed or exactly when the extraordinary exchange took place. No10 also declined to say whether security procedures would be tightened to stop the PM being targeted again. A White House official insisted on Monday that the incident had “nothing to do with the chief of staff’s devices being hacked”. It comes after the FBI last year investigated a separate attempt to impersonate Ms Wiles. An unknown person contacted prominent Republicans and business chiefs while pretending to be the top Trump aide. Most read in The Sun Mr Burnham, who replaced Sir Keir Starmer as PM on July 20, is not the the first senior British politician to be caught out by an imposter. Lord David Cameron was duped into believing he was speaking to former Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko while Foreign Secretary in 2024. The Foreign Office blamed the hoax on actors who were “clearly Russian”. Former Home Secretary Priti Patel and Defence Secretary Ben Wallace were also targeted by suspected Kremlin-linked pranksters following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. And in 1998 impressionist Jon Culshaw even managed to get through the Downing Street switchboard to Tony Blair by pretending to be Tory leader William Hague. A UK Government spokesman said: “We do not comment on national security matters.” 2 comments2