Pushes and hopes, but it’s hard to get into (7)
I believe the answer is:
thrusts
'pushes' is the definition.
(thrusting is a kind of pushing)
'it's hard to get into' is the wordplay.
'it' becomes 't' (abbreviation. e.g. in 'tis).
'hard' becomes 'h'.
'to get into' becomes 'rusts' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
't'+'h'+'rusts'='THRUSTS'
'and hopes but' acts as a link.
I am not very happy about this link. Some or all of it may belong to another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for thrusts that I've seen before include "Sudden lunges" , "drives" , "jabs" , "Impels" , "forces" .)