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The UK government is being urged to "take responsibility" and cover the £24.5m expense incurred during the recent visits by former President Trump and JD Vance to the Scottish nation, according to a top Scottish minister.

Significant Estimated Expenses Revealed

Provisional costs totalling almost £24.5m for the pair of working visits have been published by the administration in Edinburgh.

Public Finance Minister McKee described the Westminster's refusal to offer financial support as "ridiculous," stating that both trips were obviously official, pointing out that the American leader held discussions with European Union chief the EU's von der Leyen and British PM Keir Starmer during his summer visit in the northern nation.

Details of the Trips and Related Security Expenses

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

In a written communication to the Treasury’s chief secretary James Murray, Scotland’s finance secretary stated that the visits placed "significant operational and financial burdens on public services in Scotland, particularly Police Scotland."

The Scottish government calculates that the provisional cost for policing the presidential visit by itself was £21 million, which reflected peak daily deployments of over four thousand police, while expenses for the vice-president’s trip were about £3 million.

Large-Scale Policing Operation

This complex policing operation was the largest in the country since the death of the late Queen in 2022, and included regional police, specialist units, special constables and officers from across the UK for specialist support.

Robison wrote: "Following your choice not to provide funding to the Scottish government for costs accrued in connection with the visit of Donald Trump to Scotland in summer 2025 and the subsequent trip of Vice-President Vance, I am contacting you to request that you reconsider this decision and offer full reimbursement for the expense of the trips."

UK Government Response and Past Precedent

The British administration maintained that the visits were personal and "not official UK government business." A spokesperson commented: "The Scottish government must cover security expenses in the country as per established devolved funding arrangements."

While Robison referenced previous precedent where the UK government covered the cost of the president's 2018 trip to the nation, it is believed that visit followed a official invitation from Westminster, in which case it covered protection expenses under its statement of funding policy.

"Westminster must take action and pay. I think it’s unreasonable, it was clearly a work visit … Particularly when you have the PM Sir Keir meeting with Donald Trump, having press conferences with him, engaging in global diplomacy with them, its really stretching the bounds of credibility to say this was just a private holiday trip."