>>26127
>not sure how that would change internal USA politics though.
Internally, it'd get the Republicans on board with Ford's version of economic aid, which was industrialization and getting jobs to the people, and enough of the Democrats likely would've either been in favor of the package or be able to be shamed into doing so. So, it's likely the US would have drastically reduced the felt impact of the Great Depression inside of the US itself, the Dust Bowl would still cause major problems but its overall impact on the US economy would be lower. Rebuilding would have progressed a lot faster after the fact as well.
One major area that would be noticed would be Military Readiness. The Republican congress had been pushing for what essentially was a precursor to BuShips and the DoT&E in the late 20s and 30s, but were blocked by past Republican presidents and then FDR until the Mk7 gun debacle caused him enough shame to create BuShips. (Eisenhower flirted with the concept of a DoT&E during his era, but it'd be Reagan before that concept was actually made good on.) The industrialist Ford would have been likely to have pushed forward their concepts without delay, the testing of military equipment in the US (or rather the lack thereof) was something he opined on during the 30s anyway.
So, ironically, this would result in many of the felt impacts of the internal changes being felt in the Military. For example, the Mk14 Torpedo debacle wouldn't have happened and the M4 Shermans would have come out a bit later but as a stop-gap before something Pershing sized came out, and the US would have had probably twice the industrial capacity that they did historically.
The changes would be rather wide ranging, but overall things would look similar.
That being said, most of the impact would be external.
To start with, your premise point of the US still embargoing Japan would be unlikely. But for various reasons relating to Ford himself this would be unlikely anyway.
The Republicans ironically considered Japan to be an ally worth winning over - keep in mind that the Republicans had started a Technology sharing agreement with Japan under Harding (mostly formalized under Coolidge) that FDR canned in mid-1936 after he decided they were his war target. Before this, Japan-American relations had been warming rapidly, as a matter of fact the lead Architect of the 'New Order in East Asia' plan (precursor of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere), Hachirō Arita (Japanse Minister of Foreign Affairs, 1936-1940),
was an Ameriboo who wanted a permanent Military Alliance between the US and Japan. If Ford was in charge, it's unlikely he would have canceled this technology sharing agreement and very likely he would have been in favor of further friendly relations between the two powers.
As such it's
extremely unlikely that the Japanese would have been as direct in their activities in the pacific towards US holdings.
For that matter, the Republicans were no friends of China, particularly not Chiang Kai-shek , so it's likely possible that a Henry Ford Administration (with the backing of a Republican congress) would have just sold the American claims in China to Japan in exchange for assurances they'd leave the actual American holdings in the Pacific alone. Which, if buttered up with the resource trade deals the Republicans favored (and the Japanese would have loved anyway), the Japanase probably would have taken.
In fact, it's actually far more likely that the US and Japan would have formed a 'Greater Pacific Alliance' than it is for the US in this scenario to have antagonized Japan as historical, especially given the number of major figures in the Japanese military that were extremely favorable to the US (ironically even Hirohito and Tojo themselves were fans of American culture, particularly the gunboat diplomacy part); keep in mind also that the US was militarily nominally hostile to the British Empire during the late 20s and early to mid 30s. It took the Half-American Churchill no small effort to win even FDR over, even though FDR was already antagonizing Japan (and Germany, due to Hitler's decision to support Japan over China) by that point, and even then he couldn't get FDR to act in the UK's favor against the Soviet Union.
That being said, Ford purportedly was so infuriated when he learned about the 'Man Called Intrepid' (in 1938, no less, contrary to popular impression, the US caught Intrepid very early on in his campaign) that he called it in no uncertain terms an act of war against the US on the part of England. He wouldn't get over that until late 1942. (Why would he have known? Supposedly, his friends from the military told him.)
With this in mind, a Henry Ford Administration, with Republican backing, would likely have swung towards the Axis on their own without a sudden betrayal of the Japanese; and it's even likely that Japan and Germany would have gotten along better than historical due to a sea-land-sea trade route opening between them via the US.