The UK government has confirmed that it will cover the security costs of Donald Trump’s expected trip to Scotland next week.
The move is an attempt by Westminster to “appease Scottish anger” at Trump’s official visit to the UK on June 13, according to the Financial Times.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
After meeting the Queen and Theresa May on Friday, the president is widely expected to travel north to visit one of the two golf courses he owns in Scotland on Saturday or Sunday.
The Treasury’s announcement comes after Scotland’s justice secretary, Humza Yousaf, wrote to Sajid Javid, calling on the Home Secretary to commit to reimbursing costs associated with providing security for any visit by Trump.
Yousaf praised the “U-turn” from the government. “This is a welcome decision, given that President Trump is coming to the UK on the invitation of the UK Government,” he said. “However, we should not have had to force this decision - and there should never have been an assumption that the Scottish Government would pick up the tab.”
Police Scotland estimates that Trump’s visit will cost around £5m and require more than 5,000 officers, according to STV. Interim Chief Constable Iain Livingstone said many officers would have rest days cancelled as a result.
Demonstrations are expected in cities across the UK, with tens of thousands of people expected to descend on central London to protest against the president’s trip.
Riot vans, helicopters, mounted officers, search dogs, public order units and protest removal units will join counterterrorism and specialist protection officers to guarantee Trump’s safety, The Times reports.
-
In Suriname, the spectre of Dutch slave trade lingersUnder the Radar Dutch royal family visit, the first to the South American former colony in nearly 50 years, spotlights role of the Netherlands in transatlantic trade
-
Political cartoons for December 7Cartoons Sunday’s political cartoons include the Trump-tanic, AI Santa, and the search for a moderate Republican
-
Trump’s poll collapse: can he stop the slide?Talking Point President who promised to ease cost-of-living has found that US economic woes can’t be solved ‘via executive fiat’
-
Trump’s poll collapse: can he stop the slide?
Talking Point President who promised to ease cost-of-living has found that US economic woes can’t be solved ‘via executive fiat’
-
‘These accounts clearly are designed as a capitalist alternative’Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
Boat strike footage rattles some lawmakersSpeed Read ‘Disturbing’ footage of the Sept. 2 attack on an alleged drug-trafficking boat also shows the second strike that killed two survivors who were clinging to the wreckage
-
Is a Putin-Modi love-in a worry for the West?Today’s Big Question The Indian leader is walking a ‘tightrope’ between Russia and the United States
-
Trump pardons Texas Democratic congressmanspeed read Rep. Henry Cuellar was charged with accepting foreign bribes tied to Azerbaijan and Mexico
-
‘It is their greed and the pollution from their products that hurt consumers’Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
Trump targets ‘garbage’ Somalis ahead of ICE raidsSpeed Read The Department of Homeland Security will launch an immigration operation targeting Somali immigrants in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area
-
Hegseth blames ‘fog of war’ for potential war crimespeed read ‘I did not personally see survivors,’ Hegseth said at a Cabinet meeting
