American setting up king? No (4)
I believe the answer is:
yank
'american' is the definition.
(Yank is an example)
'up king? no' is the wordplay.
'up' says the letters should be written backwards (in down clue: letters go upwards).
'king?' becomes 'k'.
'no' becomes 'nay' (I've seen this before).
'k'+'nay'='knay'
'knay' written backwards gives 'YANK'.
'setting' is the link.
(Other definitions for yank that I've seen before include "pluck" , "Countryman" , "Pull roughly" , "Pull violently - American" , "Statesman?" .)