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

Substantial Estimated Expenses Disclosed

Preliminary costs totalling almost £24.5m for the two official trips have been published by the Scottish government.

Public Finance Minister McKee described the Westminster's refusal to provide funding as "absurd," arguing that both visits were obviously official, noting that the US president held discussions with EU Commission president the EU's von der Leyen and British PM Keir Starmer during his summer stay in the northern nation.

Particulars of the Trips and Associated Policing Costs

Donald Trump visited his golfing resorts at Turnberry in Ayrshire and Menie over a five-day trip in July, while US vice-president Vance spent approximately a long weekend in the Ayrshire region in late summer.

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

The Scottish government calculates that the provisional cost for policing the president's trip by itself was £21m, which involved peak daily deployments of over four thousand police, while costs for the vice-president’s trip were approximately £3 million.

Complex Security Mission

This complex policing operation was the largest in the country since the death of Queen Elizabeth II in 2022, and involved regional police, national divisions, special constables and officers from across the UK for expert assistance.

Robison wrote: "After your decision not to offer financial support to the Scottish government for expenses accrued in connection with the trip of Donald Trump to the nation in July 2025 and the following visit of VP Vance, I am writing you to ask that you reconsider this decision and offer complete repayment for the expense of the visits."

UK Government Reply and Past Precedent

The UK government maintained that the visits were private and "not part of official government duties." A representative commented: "The Scottish government are responsible for security expenses in Scotland as per established devolved funding arrangements."

While the Finance Secretary pointed to past instances where the UK government reimbursed the expense of Trump’s 2018 visit to the nation, it is understood that visit followed a official UK government invitation, in which instance it included protection expenses under its funding guidelines.

"The UK government needs to step up and pay. I think it’s ridiculous, it was clearly a official trip … Especially when you have the prime minister Sir Keir spending time with the president, holding joint briefings with him, engaging in international business with him, its really stretching the bounds of credibility to say this was merely a private holiday trip."