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

Substantial Provisional Costs Disclosed

Provisional expenses totalling nearly £24.5m for the two official trips have been published by the Scottish government.

Public Finance Minister McKee described the UK government's unwillingness to provide funding as "ridiculous," arguing that both trips were clearly official, noting that the American leader held meetings with European Union chief the EU's von der Leyen and British PM Sir Keir Starmer during his July visit in the northern nation.

Details of the Visits and Related Policing Costs

The former president toured his golf courses at Turnberry in Ayrshire and Menie over a five-day period in July, while American VP Vance spent around a long weekend in Ayrshire in late summer.

In a written communication to the Treasury minister Chief Secretary Murray, Finance Secretary Shona Robison wrote that the visits placed "substantial operational and financial burdens on public services in Scotland, especially Police Scotland."

The Scottish government calculates that the provisional cost for policing the president's trip alone was £21m, which reflected peak daily deployments of over 4,000 officers, while costs for the vice-president’s trip were approximately £3 million.

Complex Policing Operation

This extensive security mission was the largest in the country since the death of the late Queen in 2022, and included regional police, national divisions, volunteer officers and wider UK colleagues for expert assistance.

Robison wrote: "Following your choice not to provide funding to the Scottish government for expenses incurred in connection with the visit of President Donald Trump to Scotland in July 2025 and the subsequent visit of Vice-President JD Vance, I am contacting you to ask that you reconsider this stance and provide full reimbursement for the expense of the trips."

UK Government Response and Previous Example

The British administration stated that the visits were private and "not official UK government business." A spokesperson added: "The Scottish government are responsible for security expenses in Scotland as per agreed devolved funding arrangements."

While the Finance Secretary referenced previous precedent where the UK government reimbursed the cost of the president's 2018 trip to Scotland, it is understood that trip came after a formal invitation from Westminster, in which case it included security costs under its statement of funding policy.

"Westminster needs to step up and pay. I think it’s unreasonable, it was clearly a work visit … Particularly when you have the prime minister Keir Starmer spending time with the president, having press conferences with him, conducting global diplomacy with him, its really stretching the bounds of credibility to say this was merely a personal vacation."