UK will cover cost if Trump visits Scotland

The UK will cover the costs of a visit to Scotland should Donald Trump decide to travel north of the border, the government has said.

Chief secretary to the Treasury Liz Truss confirmed the state would cough up “ring-fenced funding” of up to £5m if the President decides he wants to pay the nation a visit.

It is thought he will pay at least one of his Scottish golf courses a visit during his UK trip on 13 July, and Scottish Police have estimated the cost of covering such a trip would be around £5m.

In a letter to the Scottish government’s Cabinet secretary for justice and the minister for transport and the islands Hamza Yousaf, which was also sent to the home secretary Sajid Javid and Scotland secretary David Mundell, Truss said the UK government would be providing the cash “on an exceptional basis… to cover the costs incurred by Policing Scotland, should a visit from the President be confirmed”.

But he might not find that many fans north of the border, particularly former SNP leader Alex Salmond, who he waged a war of words with back in 2015 over wind turbines.

Trump’s spokesman called Salmond “a has-been and totally irrelevant”, after Salmond dubbed the then-Presidential candidate “three times a loser” after his case to stop the building of wind turbines off the coast of his resort was thrown out.