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The UK government is being called upon to "step up" and cover the £24.5 million expense incurred during recent visits by Donald Trump and JD Vance to the Scottish nation, according to a top Scottish minister.

Substantial Provisional Costs Revealed

Preliminary expenses totalling nearly £24.5m for the pair of official trips have been made public by the Scottish government.

Ivan McKee described the UK government's unwillingness to provide funding as "ridiculous," stating that both visits were clearly work-related, pointing out that the US president held meetings with European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen and British PM Sir Keir Starmer during his July stay in the northern nation.

Details of the Trips and Related Policing Costs

Donald Trump toured his golf courses at Turnberry in Ayrshire and Menie over a five-day trip in July, while American VP JD Vance spent around four days in the Ayrshire region in late summer.

In a formal letter to the Treasury minister James Murray, Finance Secretary Shona Robison stated that the visits placed "substantial operational and financial burdens on Scottish public services, especially Police Scotland."

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

Large-Scale Security Mission

This extensive policing operation was the largest in the country since the death of the late Queen in 2022, and involved regional police, national divisions, special constables and officers from across the UK for specialist support.

The Finance Secretary stated: "After your choice not to offer financial support to the Scottish government for expenses accrued in connection with the trip of President Donald Trump to Scotland in July 2025 and the following trip of Vice-President Vance, I am contacting you to ask that you reconsider this decision and provide full reimbursement for the expense of the visits."

Westminster Response and Previous Example

The British administration stated that the trips were private and "not part of official government duties." A spokesperson commented: "Holyrood are responsible for policing costs in Scotland as per agreed devolved funding arrangements."

While Robison referenced past instances where the UK government covered the expense of the president's 2018 trip to Scotland, it is believed that visit came after a official UK government invitation, in which case it included protection expenses under its statement of funding policy.

"The UK government must take action and pay. I think it’s unreasonable, it was obviously a work visit … Especially 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."