Jen Psaki, a CNN political commentator, was the White House communications director and State Department spokeswoman during the Obama administration. She is vice president of communications and strategy at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Follow her at @jrpsaki. The opinions expressed in this commentary are hers.

(CNN) The Trump team, like so many administrations before them, has been preparing to sell the accomplishments of its first year in office. If the government shuts down, these efforts won't matter because it will all be overshadowed by the impact of the loss of government services on the public and a debate about who is responsible.

Jen Psaki

But if not, we already know basically what they will say: Donald Trump and the Republican leadership are responsible for an economic boom that is helping working people, for the record highs of the stock market and the low unemployment rate. They will not mention that many economists credit the unemployment and job growth trends to developments already underway during the eight-year recovery of the Obama presidency. And as for the stock market surge, many attribute the bump to an increase in Boeing profits and the windfall to corporations from the tax bill -- not to any Trump-devised policy that will help working people in the long run.

There will be debates about the impact of eliminating the individual mandate and remarkably whether or not the President of the United States is racist.

But the most lasting and alarming legacy of the first year may be on the international front where the dysfunction in the White House and the devaluing of diversity and basic rights at home are sending the message to the world that the indispensable United States is slipping backward on basic values. And the President's erratic and strategy-free leadership have made the United States less safe -- in four major ways.

First, and perhaps most apparent, is the impact of the President's bombastic rhetoric and cavalier attitude toward nuclear weapons and the use of force. The White House will say that Trump does things differently, that he is not afraid to talk tough to our enemies and take a fresh approach. The problem? The prospect of miscalculation and miscommunication, as many former high-level national security officials have warned, leaves the United States more vulnerable. Kim Jong Un has shown no indication that the President's name-calling and tweeting are pushing him to the negotiating table. Instead he seems to be pushing the limit with more tests and more rhetoric of his own.

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