Bring on popular old Italian dictator (6)
I believe the answer is:
induce
'bring on' is the definition.
(synonyms)
'popular old italian dictator' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'popular' could be 'in' ('in' can mean trendy) and 'in' is found in the answer.
'dictator' could be 'duce' and 'duce' is found within the answer.
This accounts for all the letters.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for induce that I've seen before include "Persuade, hasten childbirth" , "Give rise to" , "Bring on by artificial means" , "Persuade or bring on, say birth" , "Bring on, cause to happen" .)