LONDON – Multiple published reports have revealed that Britain’s newly installed Prime Minister Andy Burnham exchanged direct communications with a fraudulent imposter claiming to be Susie Wiles, White House Chief of Staff to U.S. President Donald Trump. The revelation brings to light a growing pattern of malicious AI-enabled impersonation that has targeted high-ranking officials across North America and Europe in recent months.
Politico was the first outlet to break the story, citing four anonymous government sources who confirmed that Burnham initially believed he was in legitimate contact with Wiles, before raising suspicion and terminating the interaction abruptly. When approached for confirmation, a spokesperson for the prime minister’s office declined to provide further details, citing the government’s longstanding policy of not commenting on matters related to national security.
This incident is not an isolated case. A year prior, U.S. federal authorities launched a full investigation into a string of suspicious messages sent to sitting elected officials, top business leaders, and other high-profile public figures across the United States, all originating from a scammer impersonating Wiles. In the immediate aftermath of those earlier incidents, the U.S. Department of State issued an official alert to all American diplomatic personnel warning of bad actors using artificial intelligence to mimic senior U.S. government officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio. The warning was prompted by the discovery that a scammer posing as Rubio had attempted to initiate contact with at least three sitting foreign ministers, one U.S. senator, and one U.S. state governor.
Federal law enforcement, led by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, has already publicly cautioned the global political community about the growing threat of “malicious actors” misusing generative artificial intelligence to convincingly impersonate senior government leaders for strategic or harmful purposes.
Burnham, who took office as prime minister less than four weeks ago, has made rebuilding warm bilateral relations between the United Kingdom and the Trump White House a key early foreign policy priority. His predecessor, Keir Starmer, initially enjoyed a positive rapport with Trump when he took office, but that relationship quickly deteriorated in subsequent months.