These leaders could be real idiots (10)
I believe the answer is:
editorials
'these leaders' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'could be real idiots' is the wordplay.
'could be' is an anagram indicator.
'real'+'idiots'='realidiots'
'realidiots' with letters rearranged gives 'EDITORIALS'.
(Other definitions for editorials that I've seen before include "Leading articles" , "Newspapers' opinion columns" , "Leaders" .)