Earlier, Justice Secretary Neil Gray defended the use of business-class flights.
He told BBC Radio Scotland Breakfast: “These are busy trips for ministers and it is right that they are able to arrive fresh, they’re able to arrive in a way that means that they’re able to participate and do their work immediately, so I think that’s a proportionate use.”
Gray pointed to benefits of the trip, such as increasing Scotland’s “soft-power reach and the ability to make significant international connections”.
He added: “It was right that the first minister and his team were there to participate and to be part of that.”
Economy Secretary Stephen Flynn, speaking at the BBC’s Scotcast live show at the Edinburgh Festival, also defended Swinney.
He said: “If we want our politicians to go and sit in row 46 beside the toilets and then land in Boston and then go and engage with US government officials having done so we’ll get exactly what we deserve as politicians.”
Releasing the travel expenses, the government said the US trips were made to support the national team at the World Cup as well as to hold talks on trade, tourism, culture and investment.
Conservative MSP Stephen Kerr said: “Nobody begrudged SNP ministers joining the Tartan Army to cheer on Scotland men’s team at their first World Cup appearance in nearly three decades, but in typical SNP fashion costs were never kept under control.
“Swinney and his ministerial colleague were clearly happy to escape all the challenges facing them back home, but they should have met these significant costs out of their own pocket.”
