Confront Republican in fiasco (5)
I believe the answer is:
farce
'fiasco' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I can't understand how one could define the other.
'confront republican in' is the wordplay.
'confront' becomes 'face' (synonyms).
'republican' becomes 'R' (political abbreviation).
'in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'face' enclosing 'r' is 'FARCE'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for farce that I've seen before include "Absurd drama" , "Travesty" , "Absurd proceedings, perhaps in play" , "Forcemeat" , "Humorous play; shambolic event" .)