President stuck in evil state (4)
I believe the answer is:
spin
'state' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both to do with communicating as well as being verbs in their base form.
Perhaps they are linked in a way I don't understand?
'president stuck in evil' is the wordplay.
'president' becomes 'p' (common abbreviation eg in VP).
'stuck in' is an insertion indicator.
'evil' becomes 'sin' (I've seen this before).
'p' placed inside 'sin' is 'SPIN'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for spin that I've seen before include "Emphasis; turn rapidly" , "Twist or rotate" , "Rotate on pins" , "Run second leg" , "Slant put on news etc" .)