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The UK government is being urged to "step up" and reimburse the £24.5 million cost incurred during recent visits by Donald Trump and Vice-President Vance to Scotland, according to a senior Scottish minister.

Substantial Provisional Costs Disclosed

Provisional expenses totalling nearly £24.5 million for the pair of working visits have been published by the Scottish government.

Ivan McKee labeled the UK government's unwillingness to offer financial support as "absurd," stating that both trips were obviously work-related, pointing out that the US president held discussions with European Union chief the EU's von der Leyen and UK prime minister Keir Starmer during his summer visit in the northern nation.

Particulars of the Visits and Associated Security Expenses

Donald Trump visited his golf courses at Turnberry and Menie over a week-long trip in July, while American VP Vance spent approximately a long weekend in Ayrshire in August.

In a formal letter to the Treasury minister James Murray, Finance Secretary Shona Robison stated that the trips placed "significant operational and financial burdens on Scottish public services, particularly Police Scotland."

The Scottish government estimates that the provisional cost for policing the president's trip by itself was £21 million, which involved maximum daily assignments of more than four thousand police, while costs for the VP's visit were approximately £3 million.

Large-Scale Security Mission

This extensive policing operation was the biggest in the country since the passing of the late Queen in 2022, and involved regional police, national divisions, volunteer officers and officers from across the UK for expert assistance.

Robison stated: "After your decision not to offer financial support to the Scottish government for costs incurred in connection with the trip of Donald Trump to the nation in summer 2025 and the following trip of VP JD Vance, I am writing you to ask that you reconsider this stance and offer complete repayment for the cost of the trips."

UK Government Response and Past Precedent

The British administration stated that the visits were private and "not part of official government duties." A spokesperson commented: "Holyrood are responsible for policing costs in Scotland as per established devolved funding arrangements."

While Robison pointed to previous precedent where the British administration reimbursed the expense of the president's 2018 trip to Scotland, it is believed that trip came after a formal UK government invitation, in which case it covered security costs under its statement of funding policy.

"The UK government needs to step up and pay. I think it’s ridiculous, it was clearly a official trip … Especially when you have the prime minister Sir Keir spending time with the president, having press conferences with them, conducting international business with him, its really stretching the bounds of credibility to say this was merely a personal vacation."