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The British administration is being urged to "step up" and reimburse the £24.5m cost incurred during recent visits by Donald Trump and JD Vance to the Scottish nation, according to a senior Holyrood official.

Significant Estimated Expenses Revealed

Provisional expenses totalling nearly £24.5 million for the two working visits have been published by the administration in Edinburgh.

Public Finance Minister McKee labeled the Westminster's unwillingness to provide funding as "absurd," arguing that both visits were clearly official, pointing out that the US president held meetings with European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen and British PM Keir Starmer during his July stay in the northern nation.

Details of the Trips and Related Security Expenses

Donald Trump toured his golf courses at Turnberry in Ayrshire and Menie over a week-long period in the summer, while American VP Vance spent around a long weekend in Ayrshire in August.

In a formal letter to the Treasury minister Chief Secretary Murray, Finance Secretary Shona Robison stated that the visits placed "substantial strains and costs on Scottish public services, particularly Police Scotland."

The Scottish government calculates that the provisional cost for policing the presidential visit alone was £21m, which involved peak daily deployments of over four thousand police, while costs for the VP's visit were about £3 million.

Complex Policing Operation

This complex security mission was the biggest in the country since the death of the late Queen in 2022, and involved regional police, national divisions, volunteer officers and wider UK colleagues for specialist support.

Robison wrote: "After your decision not to offer financial support to Scotland for costs incurred in relation to the visit of Donald Trump to Scotland in summer 2025 and the subsequent trip of Vice-President Vance, I am writing you to request that you reconsider this decision and offer full reimbursement for the expense of the visits."

UK Government Reply and Previous Example

The UK government stated that the trips were personal and "not part of official government duties." A spokesperson commented: "Holyrood must cover policing costs in the country as per agreed devolved funding arrangements."

While the Finance Secretary pointed to past instances where the British administration covered the cost of Trump’s 2018 visit to Scotland, it is understood that trip followed a official invitation from Westminster, in which instance it included protection expenses under its funding guidelines.

"The UK government must take action and pay. I think it’s ridiculous, it was obviously a work visit … Particularly when you have the prime minister Keir Starmer meeting with Donald Trump, holding joint briefings with him, conducting global diplomacy with him, its really stretching the bounds of credibility to say this was merely a private holiday trip."