Ground Game: AI scammers deepfake Trump officials, golf diplomacy, Vance sells tax bill

For Washington insiders, seeing and hearing is no longer believing, thanks to a spate of recent incidents involving deepfakes impersonating top officials in President Donald Trump's administration.  

Digital fakes are coming for corporate America, too, as criminal gangs and hackers associated with adversaries like North Korea use synthetic video and audio to impersonate CEOs and low-level job candidates to gain access to critical systems or business secrets. 

Welcome to this week’s edition of AP Ground Game. 

Policy changes, but facts endure. AP delivers accurate, fact-based journalism to keep the world informed in every administration. Support independent reporting today. Donate.

THE HEADLINES

President Donald Trump speaks as he meets European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen at the Trump Turnberry golf course in Turnberry, Scotland Sunday, July 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin) 

Scammers are impersonating CEOs and Trump officials using AI deepfakes 

Thanks to advances in artificial intelligence, creating realistic deepfakes is easier than ever, causing security problems for governments, businesses and private individuals and making trust the most valuable currency of the digital age. Responding to the challenge will require laws, better digital literacy and technical solutions that fight AI with more AI. 

This summer someone used AI to create a deepfake of Secretary of State Marco Rubio in an attempt to reach out to foreign ministers, a U.S. senator and a governor over text, voice mail and the Signal messaging app. In May someone impersonated Trump’s chief of staff, Susie Wiles.  

The national security implications are huge: Someone who thinks they're chatting with Rubio or Wiles, for instance, might discuss sensitive information about diplomatic negotiations or military strategy. Read more. 

Of note:

In the context of corporate espionage, they can be used to impersonate CEOs asking employees to hand over passwords or routing numbers. Deepfakes can also allow scammers to apply for jobs — and even do them — under an assumed or fake identity. 

Related reads ➤ 

• US-EU trade deal wards off further escalation but will raise costs for companies, consumers 
• It’s a year of rapid change, except when it comes to Trump’s approval numbers, AP-NORC polling finds 

Can golf 'further' US-UK relations? Trump will use Starmer meeting to try 

Trump once suggested his golf course in Scotland “furthers” the U.S.-U.K. relationship. Now he's getting the chance to prove it. 

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer meets Monday with Trump at a golf property owned by the president's family near Turnberry in southwestern Scotland — then later traveling to Aberdeen, on the country's northeast coast, where there's another Trump golf course, and a third is opening soon. During his first term in 2019, Trump posted of his Turnberry property, “Very proud of perhaps the greatest golf course anywhere in the world. Also, furthers U.K. relationship!”  

While China initially responded to Trump’s tariff threats by retaliating with high import taxes of its own on U.S. goods but has since begun negotiating easing trade tensions, Starmer and his country have taken a far softer approach. He's gone out of his way to work with Trump, flattering the president repeatedly during a February visit to the White House, and teaming up to announce a joint trade framework on tariffs for some key products in May. Read more. 

Of note:

There are still lingering U.S.-Britain trade issues that need fine-tuning after the previous agreements, including the tariff rates Washington imposes on steel imported from the U.K. Even as some trade details linger and both leaders grapple with increasingly difficult choices in Gaza and Ukraine, however, Starmer's attempts to stay on Trump's good side appears to be working.

Related reads ➤ 

• Trump once decried the idea of presidential vacations. His Scotland trip is built around golf 
• US and China to talk in Stockholm on trade with eye on Trump-Xi summit later this year 

Vance is on the road again to sell the Republicans' big new tax law 

Vice President JD Vance is hitting his home state on Monday, making a stop in Canton, Ohio, to continue promoting the GOP’s sweeping tax-and-border package that Republicans have dubbed the “One Big, Beautiful Bill.” 

The legislation cleared the GOP-controlled Congress by the narrowest of margins, with Vance breaking a tie vote in the Senate for the package that also sets aside hundreds of billions of dollars for Trump’s immigration agenda while slashing Medicaid and food stamps. 

The vice president is also stepping up his public relations blitz on the bill as the White House tries to deflect attention away from the growing controversy over disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein. Read more. 

Of note:

The White House sees the new law as a clear political boon, sending Vance to promote it in swing congressional districts that will determine whether Republicans retain their House majority next year.

Related reads ➤ 

• The House is looking into the Epstein investigation. Here’s what could happen next 
• Official fired during Trump’s first term appointed president of embattled US Institute of Peace 

IN PHOTOS

Humanitarian aid is airdropped to Palestinians over northern Gaza Strip, Sunday, July 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana) 

ON THE CALENDAR

• Trump meets Monday with Starmer at a golf property owned by the president's family near Turnberry in southwestern Scotland. 
• On Tuesday, Trump will be at the site of his new course near Aberdeen for an official ribbon cutting. 

2025 COUNTDOWN

OUTSIDE OF WASHINGTON

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