President a head of government had to harangue? (5)
I believe the answer is:
grant
'president' is the definition.
(Grant is an example)
'a head of government had to harangue?' is the wordplay.
'a head of' indicates taking the first letters.
'had' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'to harangue?' becomes 'rant' ('rant' can be a synonym of 'harangue').
The initial letter of 'government' is 'g'.
'g'+'rant'='GRANT'
(Other definitions for grant that I've seen before include "Give freely" , "Give (a right, property, etc)" , "Formally give (a right)" , "19th century president" , "Concede, like an American general" .)