David Wallace LockhartScotland political correspondent
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President Trump met the prime minister and later the first minister while in Scotland
The Scottish and UK governments are locked in dispute over who should pay for Donald Trump and JD Vance’s recent visits to Scotland.
The US president spent four days visiting his golf courses in Ayrshire and Aberdeenshire in July.
BBC Scotland News understands the Scottish government has called for about £20m in policing and security costs to be refunded by the Treasury.
But UK ministers are insisting that this was a private visit, and therefore the Scottish government has to cover the bill.
Shona Robison, Scotland’s finance secretary, is also seeking to recoup money for policing costs for Vice President JD Vance’s August holiday in Ayrshire.
She has written to the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, James Murray, pointing out UK ministers covered the costs for Donald Trump’s trip to Scotland in 2018.
In her letter, sent last week and seen by BBC Scotland News, Robison said: “There is a clear previous precedent, where the UK government has supported policing costs for visits to devolved nations by foreign dignitaries.”
The visits cost Police Scotland £24.1m, according to provisional figures published by the Scottish government.
But the UK government insists it is not liable for the bill.
Murray told broadcasters: “These visits by the president and the vice president were private visits to Scotland and of course policing is a devolved matter to the Scottish government.”
He added: “The UK government only pays for security costs when the visit is an official visit on the back of a formal invitation and that wasn’t the case this time.”
There was an official invitation in 2018, but not in 2025. And therefore UK ministers have no plans to reimburse the Scottish government.
But in her letter, Robison has made the case that the visit was “diplomatically significant”.
And she warns a failure to reimburse the costs would “strain devolved budgets [and] set a troubling precedent for future high-profile visits”.
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Vice President Vance enjoyed playing golf during his four days in Scotland in August
Scottish Public Finance Minister Ivan McKee said Trump’s visit had “absolutely” been for work and that it was “stretching the bounds of credibility to say that this was just a private holiday trip”.
He told BBC Radio’s Good Morning Scotland: “The UK government never tires of telling us that we can’t afford to be independent which is clearly nonsense but they expect us to be able to pay for the visits of international dignitaries.”
He added: “We think we have got a very strong case here and you would expect the UK government to see sense on this.”
So who is right? The answer is complicated.
The White House described the Scotland visit earlier this year as both a “private” and “working” visit.
Donald Trump found the time for a few rounds of golf while he was here.
But there also seemed to be quite a bit of official business taking place and plenty of politicians met the US president while he was on Scottish soil.
Trump plays golf at Turnberry during his visit to Scotland
Trump hosted the EU Commission president, Ursula Von Der Leyen, at Turnberry, where they sealed a trade deal.
The next day he met Sir Keir Starmer. They even flew together on the president’s helicopter, Marine One, to his other golf course in Balmedie in Aberdeenshire.
First Minister John Swinney also had facetime with Donald Trump, attending a dinner with the president and meeting him the following day to discuss whisky tariffs.
President Trump was even greeted by the then-Secretary of State for Scotland, Ian Murray, as he disembarked Air Force One at Prestwick Airport.
But the UK government is sticking to its position that the lack of an official invitation means the policing bill is not theirs to cover.
And it is not just Scottish government ministers who are angry at how this has played out.
The Scottish Police Federation (SPF) – which represents rank-and-file officers in Scotland – also wants the Treasury to pick up the bill.
Its chair, David Threadgold, said Police Scotland does not have sufficient budget to cover unexpected, high-profile events like this as well as day-to-day policing.
He told Good Morning Scotland that his “working assumption” was the costs of Trump and Vance’s visits would have been met by the UK government.
He warned that taking more than £20m out of Police Scotland’s budget would “have a really damaging impact on our ability to deliver across this country”.
McKee said ministers would ensure Police Scotland was funded “appropriately” but warned that footing the bill for Trump’s visit would put “extra pressure” on the force’s budget.
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President Trump’s visit was a huge policing operation
And we are not talking about pocket change here. This argument revolves around tens of millions of pounds.
So why was Donald Trump’s visit this summer so expensive?
There are a few factors.
Security levels were very high. After all, this visit came not long after two assassination attempts on President Trump.
The trip was only confirmed fairly late on and shift changes made with limited notice can lead to officers being paid extra.
Also, this all happened at the height of summer, when many officers were on leave. That resulted in a lot of police being drafted in from other forces across the UK.
There is a cost implication to that, both in terms of paying those officers and in putting them up in accommodation for the duration of the operation.
Add all of that up, and policing sources say that you are heading towards a particularly hefty bill.
As a policing event, it was widely seen as a success. President Trump’s visit passed off without any major security concerns.
Both the UK and Scottish governments would have let out a massive sigh of relief as Air Force One took off from RAF Lossiemouth.
But now both governments think the other should stump up the cash. And neither side seems to be willing to back down.
