Stare at leading politician meeting joker from the east (4)
I believe the answer is:
gawp
'stare' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'leading politician meeting joker from the east' is the wordplay.
'leading' says to take the initial letters (the leading letter of the word).
'meeting' says to put letters next to each other.
'joker' becomes 'wag' (I've seen this in another clue).
'from the east' is a reversal indicator (on a map from right to left).
The first letter of 'politician' is 'p'.
'p'+'wag'='pwag'
'pwag' written backwards gives 'GAWP'.
'at' is the link.
(Other definitions for gawp that I've seen before include "Stare stupidly" , "Stare open-mouthed" , "Stare rudely" , "Stare idiotically" , "Watch open-mouthed" .)