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The Scottish Government is calling on the UK Government to reimburse the £26 million cost of Donald Trump and JD Vance’s recent visits to Scotland, saying it has so far refused. The US president spent four days in Ayrshire and Aberdeenshire in July visiting his golf courses, while the vice-president spent around four days in Ayrshire the following month. In a letter to Chief Secretary to the Treasury James Murray, Scotland’s Finance Secretary Shona Robison said the visits imposed “substantial operational and financial burdens on Scottish public services, particularly Police Scotland”. She said the estimated additional cost of policing the presidential visit alone was around £20 million, reflecting peak daily deployments of more than 4,000 officers, while costs for the vice-president’s trip were around £6 million. Ms Robison said while both trips were framed as private visits, they were “diplomatically significant”. She 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.” The UK Government said the visits were private and “not official UK Government business”, and that the Scottish Government is “responsible for policing costs”. Ms Robison pointed out that the UK Government reimbursed the cost of Mr Trump’s visit to Scotland in 2018. Referring to the visits this summer, she wrote: “It is important to note that these visits were not initiated by the Scottish Government, nor were they part of devolved policy initiatives. “Whilst I recognise this was not an official visit initiated by the UK Government, any visit by a sitting president and vice-president will always constitute a high-profile event. “There is clear previous precedent, where the UK Government has supported policing costs for visits to devolved nations by foreign dignitaries, including for the costs of the president’s visit in 2018. “Although the London element of the 2018 visit was for official engagements, the Scotland element was not.” She warned that failing to reimburse the costs would “not only strain devolved budgets but also set a troubling precedent for future high-profile visits”. The letter was sent last week. Scotland’s public finance minister Ivan McKee said: “We are clear that the UK Government should reimburse in full the significant costs of the working visits by President Trump and Vice-President Vance. “The visits were part of UK Government international relations, with the Prime Minister formally meeting the president in two locations in Scotland during his visit. “It is completely unacceptable to expect the Scottish Government to foot the bill for what were clearly not private visits, as the UK Government is claiming.” Mr McKee was later interviewed on BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland programme, where he was asked about concerns that if the UK Government refuses to pay the bill it may have to come out of Scotland’s policing budget. He said: “Anything like that that’s going to have a disadvantaged impact on the Scottish police service is clearly something that’s not in anybody’s interest. “The negotiations will continue. We think we’ve got a very strong case here and we would expect the UK Government to see sense on this. “This puts extra pressure, we don’t have the ability like the UK Government to simply borrow this money to be able to cover those costs. We’ve got to find it from our fixed budget. “I find it ridiculous. We’ve got responsibility to pay for policing in Scotland and we will make sure those services are provided.” A UK Government spokesperson said: “These were private visits by the president and vice-president to Scotland, not official UK Government business. “The Scottish Government are responsible for policing costs in Scotland as per agreed devolved funding arrangements.” It is understood Mr Trump’s visit in 2018 followed a UK Government invitation, and Principle 10 of the Statement of Funding Policy therefore applied.
