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The UK government is being urged to "step up" and reimburse the £24.5m cost incurred during recent trips by former President Trump and JD Vance to Scotland, according to a top Scottish minister.

Significant Estimated Expenses Revealed

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

Public Finance Minister McKee labeled the UK government's refusal to provide funding as "ridiculous," arguing that both visits were clearly official, pointing out that the American leader held discussions with European Union chief the EU's von der Leyen and UK prime minister Sir Keir Starmer during his July visit in Scotland.

Details of the Visits and Related Policing Costs

The former president visited his golf courses at Turnberry and Menie in Aberdeenshire over a week-long period in July, while US vice-president Vance spent around a long weekend in the Ayrshire region in late summer.

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

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

Large-Scale Security Mission

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.

The Finance Secretary wrote: "Following your decision not to offer financial support to Scotland for costs incurred in connection with the trip of Donald Trump to the nation in summer 2025 and the following trip of Vice-President JD Vance, I am writing you to ask that you reconsider this decision and provide complete repayment for the expense of the trips."

Westminster Reply and Past Precedent

The British administration maintained that the visits were personal and "not part of official government duties." A representative commented: "The Scottish government must cover security expenses in Scotland as per agreed devolved funding arrangements."

While Robison pointed to previous precedent where the British administration reimbursed the cost of Trump’s 2018 visit to Scotland, it is believed that visit followed a official UK government invitation, in which instance it included protection expenses under its statement of funding policy.

"The UK government needs to step up and cover the cost. I think it’s ridiculous, it was clearly a official trip … Especially when you have the PM Keir Starmer spending time with the president, having press conferences with him, engaging in international business with them, its really hard to believe to say this was merely a private holiday trip."