🔗 Share this article

The British administration is being urged to "step up" and cover the £24.5 million expense incurred during recent trips by former President Trump and JD Vance to the Scottish nation, according to a top Holyrood official.

Substantial Estimated Expenses Revealed

Provisional costs totalling nearly £24.5 million for the pair of official trips have been made public by the Scottish government.

Ivan McKee labeled the UK government's refusal to provide funding as "absurd," stating that both trips were clearly work-related, pointing out that the American leader held discussions with EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and UK prime minister Sir Keir Starmer during his summer stay in the northern nation.

Particulars of the Trips and Associated Security Expenses

Donald Trump toured his golf courses at Turnberry and Menie over a week-long trip in July, while US vice-president JD Vance spent around a long weekend in Ayrshire in late summer.

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

The Edinburgh administration calculates that the provisional cost for policing the president's trip by itself was £21m, which involved maximum daily assignments of over four thousand police, while costs for the vice-president’s trip were approximately £3 million.

Complex Policing Operation

This complex policing operation was the largest in Scotland since the death of Queen Elizabeth II in 2022, and included regional police, national divisions, volunteer officers and wider UK colleagues for expert assistance.

Robison wrote: "After your choice not to provide funding to the Scottish government for costs incurred in relation to the trip of Donald Trump to the nation in July 2025 and the subsequent visit of Vice-President Vance, I am contacting you to ask that you review this decision and offer complete repayment for the expense of the visits."

Westminster Reply and Previous Example

The UK government stated that the trips were personal and "not official UK government business." A representative commented: "The Scottish government must cover policing costs in the country as per established devolved funding arrangements."

While Robison pointed to past instances where the British administration covered the expense of the president's 2018 trip to the nation, it is understood that visit followed a formal UK government invitation, 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 official trip … Especially when you have the PM Keir Starmer meeting with Donald Trump, holding joint briefings with him, engaging in international business with him, its really stretching the bounds of credibility to say this was merely a private holiday trip."