Crossword Genius

Trump's initial motive to hug American was duplicitous (10)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

treasonous

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'duplicitous' is the definition.
Both the answer and definition are adjectives. Perhaps there's an association between them I don't understand?

'trump's initial motive to hug american' is the wordplay.
'initial' says to take the initial letters.
'motive' becomes 'reason' (reason is a kind of motive).
'to hug' becomes 'o' (O can represent a hug in written messages).
'american' becomes 'us' (abbreviation for United States).
The first letter of 'trumps' is 't'.
't'+'reason'+'o'+'us'='TREASONOUS'

'was' is the link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for treasonous that I've seen before include "criminal" , "subversive" , "liable to harm the homeland" , "Betraying one's country" , "disloyal" .)

I've seen this clue in the Sydney Morning Herald.
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