British and Scottish Governments Disagree Over Who Should Pay the £24.5 million Bill for Donald Trump and Vance Visits

The British administration is being urged to "take responsibility" and reimburse the £24.5 million expense incurred during recent trips by Donald Trump and Vice-President Vance to the Scottish nation, according to a top Holyrood official.

Substantial Provisional Costs Revealed

Provisional costs totalling nearly £24.5 million for the two working visits have been published by the Scottish government.

Ivan McKee labeled the Westminster's refusal to offer financial support as "absurd," arguing that both trips were obviously work-related, noting that the American leader held discussions with EU Commission president the EU's von der Leyen and UK prime minister Keir Starmer during his summer stay in the northern nation.

Details of the Visits and Related Policing Costs

The former president toured his golf courses at Turnberry and Menie over a week-long period in the summer, while US vice-president JD Vance spent approximately four days in the Ayrshire region in late summer.

In a formal letter to the Treasury’s chief secretary James Murray, Scotland’s finance secretary wrote that the visits placed "substantial operational and financial burdens on Scottish public services, particularly the Scottish police force."

The Edinburgh administration estimates that the estimated expense for policing the president's trip by itself was £21m, which reflected peak daily deployments of more than 4,000 officers, while expenses for the vice-president’s trip were approximately £3m.

Large-Scale Security Mission

This extensive security mission was the biggest in the country since the death of the late Queen in 2022, and included regional police, national divisions, volunteer officers and wider UK colleagues for expert assistance.

Robison wrote: "Following your choice not to offer financial support to the Scottish government for costs accrued in relation to the visit of President Donald Trump to Scotland in July 2025 and the following visit of Vice-President Vance, I am contacting you to ask that you reconsider this decision and offer full reimbursement for the cost of the visits."

Westminster Response and Past Precedent

The UK government maintained that the visits were personal and "not official UK government business." A representative commented: "Holyrood are responsible for security expenses in Scotland as per agreed devolved funding arrangements."

While Robison referenced past instances where the British administration reimbursed the expense of Trump’s 2018 visit to Scotland, it is believed that visit followed a formal invitation from Westminster, in which case it covered security costs under its funding guidelines.

"The UK government must take action and pay. I think it’s ridiculous, it was clearly a official trip … Particularly when you have the prime minister Keir Starmer meeting with the president, holding joint briefings with him, conducting international business with him, its really stretching the bounds of credibility to say this was just a personal vacation."