August 31, 2018

Trump’s Tariffs Have Killed Off the Ford Focus

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Donald Trump is making America great again:

Ford Motor Co. has ditched plans to import its Focus compact vehicle from China to the U.S. starting next year, citing an expected hit from import tariffs the Trump administration put into effect in July. Ford had planned to begin shipping a new version of the Focus from China, starting in the second half of 2019. But the 25% tariff now in place upended the economic case for importing the vehicle, said Kumar Galhotra, head of Ford North America.

….Ford recently discontinued U.S. production of the Focus, but said it would re-enter the market next year as a small crossover utility vehicle made in China. The decision to nix the import plan means the Focus nameplate will no longer be sold in the U.S., a spokesman said.

So now there will be no Focus at all. It probably doesn’t matter much, but it demonstrates the peril of ill-advised tariffs. Sure, this hurts China a bit, but it does nothing to change the fact that manufacturing the Focus in America doesn’t make sense for Ford. There will be no new jobs for American workers and no new assembly lines. So what was the point?

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THE FACTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES.

At least we hope they will, because that’s our approach to raising the $350,000 in online donations we need right now—during our high-stakes December fundraising push.

It’s the most important month of the year for our fundraising, with upward of 15 percent of our annual online total coming in during the final week—and there’s a lot to say about why Mother Jones’ journalism, and thus hitting that big number, matters tremendously right now.

But you told us fundraising is annoying—with the gimmicks, overwrought tone, manipulative language, and sheer volume of urgent URGENT URGENT!!! content we’re all bombarded with. It sure can be.

So we’re going to try making this as un-annoying as possible. In “Let the Facts Speak for Themselves” we give it our best shot, answering three questions that most any fundraising should try to speak to: Why us, why now, why does it matter?

The upshot? Mother Jones does journalism you don’t find elsewhere: in-depth, time-intensive, ahead-of-the-curve reporting on underreported beats. We operate on razor-thin margins in an unfathomably hard news business, and can’t afford to come up short on these online goals. And given everything, reporting like ours is vital right now.

If you can afford to part with a few bucks, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones with a much-needed year-end donation. And please do it now, while you’re thinking about it—with fewer people paying attention to the news like you are, we need everyone with us to get there.

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