🔗 Share this article

The UK government is being urged to "take responsibility" and reimburse the £24.5 million cost incurred during the recent visits by Donald Trump and JD Vance to Scotland, according to a top Holyrood official.

Significant Estimated Expenses Revealed

Preliminary expenses totalling nearly £24.5m for the pair of official trips have been made public by the administration in Edinburgh.

Public Finance Minister McKee labeled the UK government's unwillingness to offer financial support as "absurd," arguing that both trips were clearly official, noting that the US president held discussions with EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and British PM Keir Starmer during his July visit in Scotland.

Details of the Trips and Associated Security Expenses

The former president visited his golf courses at Turnberry and Menie in Aberdeenshire over a five-day period in July, while US vice-president Vance spent around four days in the Ayrshire region in late summer.

In a written communication to the Treasury’s chief secretary James Murray, Finance Secretary Shona Robison wrote that the visits placed "significant operational and financial burdens on Scottish public services, especially Police Scotland."

The Scottish government calculates that the estimated expense for policing the presidential visit by itself was £21m, which reflected peak daily deployments of over four thousand police, while expenses for the vice-president’s trip were approximately £3 million.

Complex Security Mission

This complex security mission was the biggest in the country since the death of Queen Elizabeth II in 2022, and included local officers, specialist units, volunteer officers and officers from across the UK for specialist support.

Robison wrote: "Following your choice not to provide funding to Scotland for expenses incurred in connection with the trip of Donald Trump to Scotland in summer 2025 and the subsequent trip of VP Vance, I am writing you to ask that you reconsider this decision and offer complete repayment for the expense of the visits."

UK Government Reply and Previous Example

The British administration maintained that the visits were private and "not official UK government business." A spokesperson added: "Holyrood must cover policing costs in the country as per agreed devolved funding arrangements."

While Robison referenced past instances where the British administration covered the cost of the president's 2018 trip to the nation, it is believed that trip followed a formal invitation from Westminster, in which case it covered security costs under its statement of funding policy.

"The UK government must take action and pay. I think it’s unreasonable, it was clearly a work visit … Particularly when you have the PM Sir Keir meeting with the president, having press conferences with him, conducting international business with them, its really stretching the bounds of credibility to say this was merely a private holiday trip."