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The UK government is being called upon to "take responsibility" and reimburse the £24.5 million expense incurred during recent visits by former President Trump and Vice-President Vance to Scotland, according to a senior Holyrood official.

Significant Estimated Expenses Revealed

Provisional expenses amounting to almost £24.5m for the pair of working visits have been made public by the administration in Edinburgh.

Ivan McKee labeled the Westminster's refusal to offer financial support as "ridiculous," stating that both visits were clearly work-related, noting that the US president held meetings with EU Commission president the EU's von der Leyen and UK prime minister Sir Keir Starmer during his summer stay in the northern nation.

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 five-day trip in the summer, while American VP Vance spent around four days in Ayrshire in August.

In a formal letter to the Treasury minister Chief Secretary Murray, Scotland’s finance secretary wrote that the visits placed "significant 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 president's trip by itself was £21m, which involved peak daily deployments of over 4,000 officers, while expenses for the VP's visit were approximately £3 million.

Large-Scale Policing Operation

This complex security mission was the largest in Scotland since the death of the late Queen in 2022, and included local officers, national divisions, volunteer officers and wider UK colleagues for specialist support.

Robison wrote: "After your decision not to provide funding to the Scottish government for expenses accrued in relation to the visit of President Donald Trump to the nation in July 2025 and the following visit of VP JD Vance, I am writing you to request that you reconsider this decision and provide complete repayment for the expense of the visits."

Westminster Response and Previous Example

The UK government maintained that the visits were private 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 Robison referenced previous precedent where the British administration covered the expense of Trump’s 2018 visit to Scotland, it is believed that visit followed a official invitation from Westminster, in which case it covered security costs under its funding guidelines.

"The UK government needs to step up and pay. I think it’s unreasonable, it was obviously a work visit … Particularly when you have the prime minister Keir Starmer spending time 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 merely a personal vacation."