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The UK government is being called upon to "take responsibility" and reimburse the £24.5 million cost incurred during recent visits by Donald Trump and Vice-President Vance to the Scottish nation, according to a top Scottish minister.

Substantial Provisional Costs Revealed

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

Ivan McKee described the UK government's unwillingness to offer financial support as "ridiculous," stating that both visits were clearly official, noting that the American leader held discussions with EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and UK prime minister Keir Starmer during his July stay in the northern nation.

Details of the Visits and Related Security Expenses

Donald Trump visited his golfing resorts at Turnberry in Ayrshire and Menie over a five-day period in the summer, while American VP Vance spent around four days in Ayrshire in late summer.

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

The Scottish government calculates that the provisional cost for securing the presidential visit by itself was £21 million, which reflected 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 policing operation was the largest in Scotland since the death of Queen Elizabeth II in 2022, and involved local officers, specialist units, special constables and wider UK colleagues for expert assistance.

Robison wrote: "After your decision not to provide funding to Scotland for expenses incurred in relation to the visit of Donald Trump to the nation in summer 2025 and the subsequent trip of VP Vance, I am contacting you to request that you reconsider this stance and provide full reimbursement for the expense of the trips."

UK Government Reply and Previous Example

The UK government maintained that the trips were private and "not part of official government duties." A spokesperson added: "The Scottish government are responsible for security expenses in the country as per established devolved funding arrangements."

While Robison pointed to past instances where the UK government covered the cost of Trump’s 2018 visit to Scotland, it is believed that trip came after a formal invitation from Westminster, in which case it covered security costs under its funding guidelines.

"The UK government needs to step up and cover the cost. I think it’s unreasonable, it was obviously a work visit … Especially when you have the PM Keir Starmer meeting with the president, having press conferences with him, engaging in global diplomacy with him, its really stretching the bounds of credibility to say this was just a private holiday trip."