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The British administration is being called upon to "step up" and reimburse the £24.5m expense incurred during recent trips by Donald Trump and JD Vance to Scotland, according to a senior Scottish minister.

Significant Estimated Expenses Disclosed

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

Public Finance Minister McKee described the Westminster's unwillingness to provide funding as "absurd," stating that both visits were obviously work-related, noting that the US president held meetings with EU Commission president the EU's von der Leyen and UK prime minister Keir Starmer during his summer stay in Scotland.

Details of the Trips and Related Policing Costs

The former president visited his golf courses at Turnberry in Ayrshire and Menie in Aberdeenshire over a week-long trip in July, while American VP Vance spent approximately a long weekend in the Ayrshire region in late summer.

In a formal letter to the Treasury’s chief secretary James Murray, Scotland’s finance secretary stated that the visits placed "substantial operational and financial burdens on public services in Scotland, especially the Scottish police force."

The Scottish government estimates that the provisional cost for securing the presidential visit alone was £21 million, which involved peak daily deployments of more than four thousand police, while expenses for the VP's visit were approximately £3m.

Large-Scale Security Mission

This extensive policing operation was the biggest in Scotland since the death of Queen Elizabeth II in 2022, and involved regional police, national divisions, volunteer officers and officers from across the UK for specialist support.

Robison wrote: "Following your decision not to provide funding to Scotland for expenses accrued in connection with the visit of Donald Trump to the nation in summer 2025 and the following visit of VP JD Vance, I am writing you to ask that you review this decision and provide full reimbursement for the expense of the visits."

Westminster Reply and Previous Example

The British administration maintained that the visits were personal and "not part of official government duties." A representative added: "The Scottish government are responsible for security expenses in the country as per agreed funding agreements for devolved matters."

While the Finance Secretary referenced previous precedent where the British administration covered the cost of Trump’s 2018 visit to the nation, it is understood that visit came after a official invitation from Westminster, in which case it included protection expenses under its funding guidelines.

"The UK government needs to step up and pay. I think it’s ridiculous, it was obviously a work visit … Particularly when you have the prime minister Sir Keir meeting with the president, having press conferences with him, engaging in international business with him, its really stretching the bounds of credibility to say this was merely a personal vacation."