The Scottish government has asked Westminster to reimburse the £24.5m cost of Donald Trump and JD Vance’s recent visits to Scotland.
The two working visits cost Holyrood almost £24.5m, according to figures published by the Scottish government this week.
However, the UK government has refused to cover the cost of the visits, claiming they were private trips. This is despite the fact Trump held meetings with both the EU Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, and Keir Starmer during his visit.
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The five-day trip in July also involved visits to Trump’s golfing resorts in Turnberry in Ayrshire and Menie in Aberdeenshire. The following month, JD Vance spent four days in Ayrshire.
Holyrood’s public finance minister Ivan Mckee has said it is “ridiculous” that Westminster has refused to provide funding for trips, the Guardian reports.
In a letter to the Treasury, Scotland’s finance secretary, Shona Robison, said the visit imposed “substantial operational and financial burdens on Scottish public services, particularly Police Scotland”.
According to estimates from the Scottish government, the cost of policing alone during Trump’s visit was £21m, whilst Vance’s trip was around £3m.
Robison wrote: “Following your decision not to provide funding to Scotland for costs incurred in relation to the visit of President Donald Trump to Scotland in July 2025 and the subsequent visit of Vice-President JD Vance, I am writing to you to request that you reconsider this decision and provide full reimbursement for the cost of the visits.”
In response, the UK government has said the visits were “not official UK government business.”
A government spokesperson said: “The Scottish government are responsible for policing costs in Scotland as per agreed devolved funding arrangements.”
Speaking on BBC Radio Scotland, Ivan McKee said: “The UK government needs to step up and pay. I think it’s ridiculous, it was clearly a work visit, particularly when you have the prime minister Keir Starmer spending time with Donald Trump, having press conferences with them, conducting international business with them.
“It’s really stretching the bounds of credibility to say this was just a private holiday trip.”