Burnham sent “a few messages” via an unspecified channel to a person he believed to be White House chief of staff Susie Wiles before growing suspicious, anonymous sources told Politico.
The British Embassy in Washington has raised the incident with the White House. It is unknown when the messages were sent or what they were about.
Burnham is not the first British politician to fall for a hoax. In 2024, then-Foreign Secretary David Cameron was tricked into believing he was on the phone with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.
Last year, the White House also investigated reports that senior politicians, civil servants and business leaders had received messages from someone claiming to be Susie Wiles.
