Brian,
In a word, “No”.
The issue here is that Trump has been talking to industrialists for years about outsourcing manufacturing overseas. His ideas are well known among multiple disciplines, from Nabisco to IBM. You can write a book about this economic philosophy which was scrapped in the 1970s (after being atrophied in the 60s), and it is a little troubling to see so much specious and superficial “analysis” that passes for informed expertise in the media.
But to cut it short, and to stay on the topic of Taiwan:
It’s good news for the Taiwanese and the DPP.
Take the semiconductor industry for example.
Trump’s main agenda is to target the “fabless” manufacturing model (and yes, he’s familiar with the industry, having famously argued with and debated the topic with executives from GE to Intel). This is one of the reasons why so many US companies have assigned subdivisions of engineers and accountants to expand floorspace for everything from tooling to heavy industry and energy infrastructure.
(It is simply not true that Trump’s election comes as a “surprise”. “Shock” maybe to those who were trying to gaslight and suppress his voters through misinformation.)
There are fabrication and manufacturing plants and certifications being approved all over the United States now, from Ohio to Arizona.
That’s real money moving.
Outwardly, that’s not a good sign for Taiwan, the home of major semiconductor foundries for fabless modeled companies in the US. But here, Trump is targeting “China”, not Taiwan. Trump doesn’t hold to the one-China policy (it’s less a “policy” than an exercise of political correctness on a global scale), so any regulatory or trade restrictions imposed on “China” will not effect Taiwan directly. However, it would mean a reversal of offshoring jobs from Taiwan to China (the US is not the only country with worker competition from the PRC).
Most of the breathless media goes something like “trade-war, protectionism, no-plan”. The latest phony narrative is that he has no power to change trade relationships.
In fact, Trump can do this via simple interpretation of enforcement and allow the “pall” cast over such ventures to enter the risk/reward equation. Like immigration, “the environment”, securities law, etc, there are already a mountain of laws and regulations on the books (or that Trump can write) which require no approval from Congress, and which the courts would spend years attempting to overturn (by which time the intended effect/damage has been done). No less than Obama demonstrated how to do this.
So Trump’s economic policy is key for many industries, which is one thing companies like Intel and Apple are keen to look for.
The belief, right now, is that Taiwan will be largely unchanged in its trade relationships with the US - which is far more than can be said of other countries including Japan and China.