Foregone conclusion of Romney that is directed to trap Democrat (7)
I believe the answer is:
yielded
'foregone' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both to do with fundamental existence as well as being past participle verbs.
Maybe they are linked in a way I don't understand?
'conclusion of romney that is directed to trap democrat' is the wordplay.
'conclusion of' indicates one should take the final letters.
'that is' becomes 'ie' (abbreviation for id est, 'that is' in Latin).
'directed' becomes 'led' (direct can mean to lead someone somewhere).
'to trap' is an insertion indicator.
'democrat' becomes 'd'.
The final letter of 'romney' is 'y'.
'led' placed around 'd' is 'lded'.
'y'+'ie'+'lded'='YIELDED'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for yielded that I've seen before include "Gave way under pressure" , "given away" , "Produced; surrendered" , "Produced - admitted superiority" , "Produced, provided" .)