🔗 Share this article

The UK government is being called upon to "take responsibility" and cover the £24.5 million expense incurred during recent trips by Donald Trump and Vice-President Vance to the Scottish nation, according to a senior Holyrood official.

Significant Provisional Costs Revealed

Preliminary costs amounting to nearly £24.5m for the pair of official trips have been made public by the administration in Edinburgh.

Ivan McKee labeled the UK government's refusal to offer financial support as "ridiculous," stating that both visits were obviously official, pointing out that the US president held discussions with EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and UK prime minister Keir Starmer during his summer stay in Scotland.

Details of the Trips and Associated Policing Costs

The former president toured 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 Ayrshire in August.

In a formal letter to the Treasury’s chief secretary James Murray, Scotland’s finance secretary wrote that the trips placed "significant operational and financial burdens on Scottish public services, especially Police Scotland."

The Edinburgh administration estimates that the provisional cost for policing the presidential visit by itself was £21 million, which involved peak daily deployments of over 4,000 officers, while costs for the vice-president’s trip were about £3m.

Large-Scale Security Mission

This complex policing operation was the biggest in Scotland since the passing of Queen Elizabeth II in 2022, and included regional police, national divisions, volunteer officers and wider UK colleagues for specialist support.

Robison stated: "After your choice not to provide funding to the Scottish government for costs incurred in relation to the trip of Donald Trump to the nation in summer 2025 and the following visit of VP JD Vance, I am contacting you to request that you reconsider this decision and provide full reimbursement for the expense of the visits."

UK Government Reply and Past Precedent

The UK government maintained that the trips were private and "not part of official government duties." A spokesperson added: "The Scottish government must cover policing costs in Scotland as per agreed devolved funding arrangements."

While the Finance Secretary pointed to previous precedent where the British administration reimbursed the cost of the president's 2018 trip to Scotland, it is believed that trip followed a formal invitation from Westminster, in which case it covered protection expenses under its funding guidelines.

"The UK government needs to step up and pay. I think it’s unreasonable, it was obviously a work visit … Especially when you have the prime minister Keir Starmer meeting with Donald Trump, holding joint briefings with them, engaging in global diplomacy with him, its really stretching the bounds of credibility to say this was just a personal vacation."