UK Prime Minister mistakenly exchanged texts with impersonator of Trump aide

UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham has exchanged messages with a person impersonating US President Donald Trump’s chief of staff.

Burnham, who has only been prime minister for less than a month, has been messaging someone who was posing as the White House Chief of Staff,  Susie Wiles, reports Politico.

It’s unclear when the exchange happened or what was discussed, but the British embassy in Washington DC was so concerned it raised the incident with the Trump administration.

UK government officials told CNN it does not comment on national security matters.

It is understood the communication was in the form of messages and “no messages of significance” were exchanged.

Burnham quickly became suspicious, and the incident was reported to the proper authorities.

Burnham became Britain’s prime minister on July 20, but was effectively the country’s prime minister-in-waiting for a month prior to that when he re-entered parliament.

A White House official said the incident was unrelated to an FBI investigation into Wiles’ phone being hacked in May 2025.

At that time, Wiles said her personal phone had been hacked after an impersonator, or impersonators, used her contacts file to message other top American officials.

Burnham is not the first British leader to be duped by false texts.

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In 2024, officials confirmed then-foreign secretary and former prime minister David Cameron had made a hoax phone call with someone pretending to be former Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko.

Then prime minister Boris Johnson in 2018 held an almost 20-minute call with a Russian prankster pretending to be the prime minister of Armenia.

Downing Street officials said Johnson immediately realised the caller was a hoax.