Crossword Genius

The overwhelming emotion produced by politician welcoming one gangster on white horse (5,4)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

tidal wave

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'the overwhelming emotion' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I can't see how one could define the other.

'politician welcoming one gangster on white horse' is the wordplay.
'politician welcoming' becomes 'tid' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'one gangster' becomes 'al' (Al Capone).
'on' says to put letters next to each other.
'white horse' becomes 'wave' (I've seen this before).
'tid'+'al'+'wave'='TIDAL WAVE'

'produced by' is the link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for tidal wave that I've seen before include "Huge movement of public opinion" , "natural disaster?" , "potential disaster, naturally" , "Huge sea surge" , "Large movement (of water or public opinion)" .)

I've seen this clue in the Irish Times and the Irish Times (Crosaire).
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