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The UK government is being urged to "take responsibility" and reimburse the £24.5m expense incurred during the recent trips by Donald Trump and Vice-President Vance to Scotland, according to a senior Holyrood official.

Significant Estimated Expenses Revealed

Preliminary costs totalling nearly £24.5 million for the two official trips have been made public by the administration in Edinburgh.

Ivan McKee described the Westminster's refusal to provide funding as "absurd," arguing that both visits were obviously work-related, pointing out that the US president held discussions with EU Commission president the EU's von der Leyen and UK prime minister Sir Keir Starmer during his July visit in the northern nation.

Particulars of the Trips and Related Security Expenses

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

In a formal letter to the Treasury minister James Murray, Scotland’s finance secretary stated that the trips placed "significant operational and financial burdens on Scottish public services, particularly the Scottish police force."

The Scottish government calculates that the provisional cost for policing the president's trip alone was £21m, which involved peak daily deployments of more than 4,000 officers, while costs for the vice-president’s trip were approximately £3m.

Complex Security Mission

This complex security mission was the biggest in Scotland since the passing of the late Queen in 2022, and involved local officers, national divisions, volunteer officers and officers from across the UK for specialist support.

Robison stated: "Following your decision not to offer financial support to Scotland for costs accrued in relation to the visit of Donald Trump to Scotland in July 2025 and the subsequent trip of Vice-President JD Vance, I am writing you to ask that you reconsider this decision and provide full reimbursement for the expense of the trips."

Westminster Reply and Previous Example

The UK government maintained that the trips were private and "not part of official government duties." A spokesperson added: "The Scottish government must cover security expenses in the country as per established funding agreements for devolved matters."

While Robison pointed to previous precedent where the UK government covered the cost of the president's 2018 trip to the nation, it is understood that visit came after a official invitation from Westminster, in which case it covered security costs under its statement of funding policy.

"The UK government needs to step up and cover the cost. I think it’s unreasonable, it was clearly a work visit … Especially when you have the prime minister Keir Starmer spending time with the president, holding joint briefings with them, engaging in global diplomacy with him, its really stretching the bounds of credibility to say this was just a personal vacation."