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The UK government is being urged to "step up" and reimburse the £24.5m cost incurred during the recent visits by Donald Trump and Vice-President Vance to Scotland, according to a top Holyrood official.

Substantial Estimated Expenses Revealed

Provisional costs amounting to almost £24.5m for the two working visits have been made public by the administration in Edinburgh.

Public Finance Minister McKee labeled the UK government's refusal to offer financial support as "absurd," stating that both trips were obviously work-related, noting that the US president held meetings with European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen and British PM Keir Starmer during his July visit in Scotland.

Details of the Visits and Related Security Expenses

Donald Trump visited his golf courses at Turnberry and Menie over a week-long trip in July, while American VP JD Vance spent around a long weekend in Ayrshire in August.

In a formal letter to the Treasury’s chief secretary James Murray, Finance Secretary Shona Robison wrote that the visits placed "substantial strains and costs on Scottish public services, particularly the Scottish police force."

The Scottish government calculates that the provisional cost for policing the president's trip by itself was £21 million, which involved peak daily deployments of more than 4,000 officers, while costs for the VP's visit were approximately £3 million.

Complex Policing Operation

This extensive security mission was the largest in Scotland since the passing of the late Queen in 2022, and involved regional police, national divisions, volunteer officers and wider UK colleagues for specialist support.

Robison wrote: "After your decision not to provide funding to Scotland for costs incurred in relation to the visit of President Donald Trump to Scotland in summer 2025 and the subsequent visit of VP Vance, I am contacting you to ask that you reconsider this decision and provide full reimbursement for the expense of the trips."

Westminster Response and Previous Example

The UK government maintained that the visits were private and "not official UK government business." A spokesperson commented: "The Scottish government are responsible for security expenses in the country as per established funding agreements for devolved matters."

While the Finance Secretary pointed to past instances where the UK government covered the expense of Trump’s 2018 visit to Scotland, it is understood that visit came after a formal UK government invitation, in which case it covered security costs under its statement of funding policy.

"The UK government must take action and cover the cost. I think it’s unreasonable, it was obviously a work visit … Especially when you have the PM Keir Starmer meeting with the president, having press conferences with him, engaging in international business with them, its really hard to believe to say this was just a private holiday trip."