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The British administration is being called upon to "step up" and reimburse the £24.5 million expense incurred during recent trips by former President Trump and JD Vance to Scotland, according to a senior Holyrood official.

Significant Estimated Expenses Revealed

Preliminary costs totalling almost £24.5m for the pair of working visits have been made public by the Scottish government.

Ivan McKee described the UK government's refusal to provide funding as "absurd," stating that both visits were clearly work-related, pointing out that the US president held meetings with European Union chief the EU's von der Leyen and UK prime minister Keir Starmer during his July stay in Scotland.

Particulars of the Visits and Associated Policing Costs

The former president visited his golf courses at Turnberry in Ayrshire and Menie in Aberdeenshire over a five-day trip in July, while US vice-president JD Vance spent around a long weekend in the Ayrshire region in August.

In a formal letter to the Treasury minister Chief Secretary Murray, Scotland’s finance secretary stated that the trips placed "significant operational and financial burdens on Scottish public services, particularly the Scottish police force."

The Edinburgh administration calculates that the provisional cost for securing the president's trip by itself was £21m, which involved peak daily deployments of over 4,000 officers, while costs for the VP's visit were about £3m.

Complex Policing Operation

This extensive security mission was the largest in Scotland since the death of Queen Elizabeth II in 2022, and included regional police, specialist units, volunteer officers and wider UK colleagues for specialist support.

Robison stated: "After your decision 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 request that you review this decision and offer full reimbursement for the expense of the visits."

UK Government Reply and Past Precedent

The British administration stated that the visits were personal and "not official UK government business." A representative added: "Holyrood must cover security expenses in Scotland as per agreed devolved funding arrangements."

While the Finance Secretary pointed to past instances where the UK government reimbursed the cost of Trump’s 2018 visit to the nation, it is believed that trip came after a official invitation from Westminster, in which case it covered protection expenses under its funding guidelines.

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