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The UK government is being urged to "step up" and cover the £24.5 million expense incurred during recent trips by former President Trump and Vice-President Vance to Scotland, according to a top Scottish minister.

Substantial Provisional Costs Revealed

Preliminary costs amounting to nearly £24.5m for the two official trips have been published by the administration in Edinburgh.

Public Finance Minister McKee labeled the UK government's refusal to offer financial support as "absurd," arguing that both trips were clearly work-related, noting that the American leader held meetings with European Union chief the EU's von der Leyen and UK prime minister Sir Keir Starmer during his summer stay in the northern nation.

Particulars of the Visits and Related Policing Costs

The former president visited his golfing resorts at Turnberry in Ayrshire and Menie in Aberdeenshire over a week-long period in July, while American VP Vance spent around four days in Ayrshire in late summer.

In a formal letter to the Treasury’s chief secretary James Murray, Finance Secretary Shona Robison wrote that the visits placed "significant operational and financial burdens on Scottish public services, especially the Scottish police force."

The Edinburgh administration calculates that the provisional cost for policing the presidential visit alone was £21m, which involved maximum daily assignments of more than 4,000 officers, while costs for the vice-president’s trip were about £3 million.

Complex Policing Operation

This complex security mission was the largest in Scotland since the passing of the late Queen in 2022, and included regional police, specialist units, volunteer officers and officers from across the UK for expert assistance.

Robison stated: "Following your decision not to offer financial support to the Scottish government for costs incurred in connection with the visit of Donald Trump to Scotland in July 2025 and the subsequent visit of Vice-President JD Vance, I am writing you to request that you reconsider this decision and provide full reimbursement for the expense of the visits."

Westminster Response and Past Precedent

The UK government stated that the trips were private and "not official UK government business." A representative commented: "The Scottish government must cover security expenses in the country as per agreed devolved funding arrangements."

While Robison pointed to previous precedent where the UK government covered the expense of the president's 2018 trip to Scotland, it is understood that visit followed a formal invitation from Westminster, in which case it covered security costs under its statement of funding policy.

"The UK government must take action and pay. I think it’s ridiculous, it was clearly a official trip … Especially when you have the prime minister Sir Keir meeting with the president, holding joint briefings with him, engaging in global diplomacy with him, its really stretching the bounds of credibility to say this was just a personal vacation."