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

Substantial Estimated Expenses Revealed

Preliminary costs totalling almost £24.5 million for the pair of official trips have been published by the administration in Edinburgh.

Ivan McKee labeled the UK government's refusal to provide funding as "ridiculous," arguing that both visits were obviously work-related, noting that the US president held discussions with EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and British PM Keir Starmer during his summer stay in Scotland.

Particulars of the Visits and Related Policing Costs

The former president toured his golf courses at Turnberry in Ayrshire and Menie in Aberdeenshire over a week-long trip in July, while American VP Vance spent around a long weekend in the Ayrshire region in late summer.

In a formal letter to the Treasury minister James Murray, Finance Secretary Shona Robison wrote that the trips placed "significant operational and financial burdens on public services in Scotland, especially the Scottish police force."

The Edinburgh administration calculates that the estimated expense for securing the presidential visit alone was £21m, which involved maximum daily assignments of over 4,000 officers, while costs for the vice-president’s trip were about £3 million.

Complex Security Mission

This extensive security mission was the largest in the country since the death of the late Queen in 2022, and involved local officers, national divisions, volunteer officers and officers from across the UK for specialist support.

Robison wrote: "Following your decision not to provide funding to Scotland for expenses accrued in connection with the visit of Donald Trump to Scotland in July 2025 and the following visit of Vice-President Vance, I am contacting you to ask that you review this stance and provide full reimbursement for the cost of the visits."

Westminster Reply and Past Precedent

The British administration maintained that the trips were private and "not official UK government business." A representative commented: "The Scottish government must cover security expenses in Scotland as per agreed devolved funding arrangements."

While the Finance Secretary referenced previous precedent where the British administration reimbursed the cost of Trump’s 2018 visit to Scotland, it is believed that trip came after 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 unreasonable, it was obviously a official trip … Especially when you have the prime minister Sir Keir spending time with Donald Trump, holding joint briefings with them, engaging in global diplomacy with them, its really stretching the bounds of credibility to say this was merely a personal vacation."