Despotic, creating canny trail (10)
I believe the answer is:
tyrannical
'despotic' is the definition.
(I know that despotic can be written as tyrannical)
'creating canny trail' is the wordplay.
'creating' indicates anagramming the letters.
'canny'+'trail'='cannytrail'
'cannytrail' anagrammed gives 'TYRANNICAL'.
(Other definitions for tyrannical that I've seen before include "Unjustly oppressive" , "Autocratic" .)