The UK government is being called upon to "take responsibility" and cover the £24.5m cost incurred during the recent trips by Donald Trump and Vice-President Vance to Scotland, according to a top Scottish minister.
Substantial Estimated Expenses Revealed
Preliminary expenses totalling nearly £24.5 million for the pair of working visits have been published by the administration in Edinburgh.
Ivan McKee described the Westminster's unwillingness to provide funding as "absurd," stating that both visits were clearly work-related, noting that the US president held meetings with EU Commission president the EU's von der Leyen and UK prime minister Sir Keir Starmer during his July stay in the northern nation.
Details of the Trips and Associated Security Expenses
The former president visited his golf courses at Turnberry and Menie in Aberdeenshire over a week-long period in July, while American VP JD Vance spent approximately a long weekend in the Ayrshire region in late summer.
In a formal letter to the Treasury’s chief secretary James Murray, Scotland’s finance secretary wrote that the trips placed "substantial operational and financial burdens on Scottish public services, especially Police Scotland."
The Scottish government estimates that the provisional cost for policing the presidential visit alone was £21 million, which involved maximum daily assignments of over 4,000 officers, while expenses for the vice-president’s trip were approximately £3m.
Large-Scale Policing Operation
This extensive policing operation was the largest in the country since the passing of the late Queen in 2022, and included local officers, specialist units, volunteer officers and officers from across the UK for specialist support.
Robison stated: "After your choice not to offer financial support to the Scottish government for expenses accrued in relation to the trip of Donald Trump to Scotland in summer 2025 and the subsequent trip of VP Vance, I am writing you to request that you reconsider this decision and offer full reimbursement for the cost of the visits."
UK Government Reply and Previous Example
The British administration maintained that the trips were private and "not part of official government duties." A representative commented: "Holyrood must cover security expenses in Scotland as per established devolved funding arrangements."
While Robison pointed to previous precedent where the British administration reimbursed the expense of Trump’s 2018 visit to Scotland, it is believed that trip came after a official invitation from Westminster, in which instance it included protection expenses under its funding guidelines.
"The UK government must take action and cover the cost. I think it’s ridiculous, it was clearly a official trip … Especially when you have the prime minister Keir Starmer meeting with Donald Trump, holding joint briefings with him, conducting international business with them, its really stretching the bounds of credibility to say this was just a private holiday trip."
