Lincoln and Roosevelt initially want backing for Scottish city (8)
I believe the answer is:
aberdeen
'scottish city' is the definition.
(Aberdeen is a city in Scotland)
'lincoln and roosevelt initially want backing' is the wordplay.
'lincoln' becomes 'abe' (Abraham Lincoln).
'and' says to put letters next to each other.
'initially' indicates taking the first letters.
'want' becomes 'need' (synonyms).
'backing' is a reversal indicator.
The initial letter of 'roosevelt' is 'r'.
'need' written backwards gives 'deen'.
'abe'+'r'+'deen'='ABERDEEN'
'for' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for aberdeen that I've seen before include "1 Across city" , "city in Europe" , "Bare need to be in Scottish city, oddly" , "somewhere in Scotland" , "Scottish East coast city" .)