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The British administration is being urged to "step up" and cover the £24.5 million cost incurred during recent visits by Donald Trump and Vice-President Vance to Scotland, according to a top Scottish minister.

Significant Provisional Costs Revealed

Preliminary expenses totalling almost £24.5m for the two working visits have been made public by the Scottish government.

Public Finance Minister McKee described the Westminster's unwillingness to provide funding as "ridiculous," arguing that both trips were obviously work-related, pointing out that the American leader held meetings with EU Commission president the EU's von der Leyen and British PM Keir Starmer during his July stay in Scotland.

Particulars of the Trips and Related Policing Costs

Donald Trump visited his golf courses at Turnberry in Ayrshire and Menie over a week-long period in July, while American VP JD Vance spent approximately four days in the Ayrshire region in August.

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

The Scottish government estimates that the provisional cost for securing the presidential visit by itself was £21m, which reflected maximum daily assignments of more than four thousand police, while expenses for the VP's visit were about £3 million.

Complex Security Mission

This extensive policing operation was the largest in the country since the death of the late Queen in 2022, and included local officers, national divisions, volunteer officers and wider UK colleagues for specialist support.

Robison stated: "After your choice not to provide funding to Scotland for expenses incurred in relation to the trip of Donald Trump to the nation in summer 2025 and the subsequent trip of VP Vance, I am writing you to ask that you reconsider this stance and provide complete repayment for the cost of the visits."

UK Government Reply and Past Precedent

The UK government maintained that the trips were personal and "not official UK government business." A spokesperson added: "Holyrood are responsible for security expenses in the country as per agreed devolved funding arrangements."

While Robison pointed to past instances where the UK government reimbursed the cost of Trump’s 2018 visit to the nation, it is believed that visit followed a formal invitation from Westminster, in which case it included security costs under its funding guidelines.

"Westminster needs to step up and cover the cost. I think it’s ridiculous, it was clearly a work visit … Particularly when you have the PM Keir Starmer spending time with the president, holding joint briefings with him, conducting global diplomacy with him, its really stretching the bounds of credibility to say this was merely a personal vacation."