Welcome to POLITICO’s West Wing Playbook, your guide to the people and power centers in the Biden administration. With Allie Bice and Louis Nelson Send tips | Subscribe here | Email Alex | Email Tina JAKE SULLIVAN is a D.C. golden boy — or at least he was. The 44-year-old national security adviser — the youngest in 60 years — has suddenly found himself at odds with much of the American foreign policy establishment (sometimes called “the blob”), of which he has long been a card-carrying member, with Yale Law School and Rhodes Scholar credentials to match. As he defends the Biden administration’s decisions regarding the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, Sullivan has been more likely to find allies in people like Sen. BERNIE SANDERS (I-Vt.) adviser MATT DUSS and the non-interventionist Quincy Institute rather than in the pages of Beltway organs like “Foreign Affairs,” where he used to write occasional dispatches. “Jake's a really smart guy. He's very competent. But are the leaders of the NSC and NEC quite as smart as they think they are?” asked IAN BREMMER , president of the international consulting firm Eurasia group and a go-to quote for much of the foreign policy-focused media. “I think more of the policy process needs to be inclusive than has been happening so far. Do they really not need the advice of the various Cabinet secretaries or allies or the senior generals in the Pentagon? I think they need more of that.” The White House responded to this story with many calls and emails but ultimately declined to comment. It did, however, argue that Sullivan’s process was inclusive, fair, and that the Pentagon and other stakeholders had ample time to air their views. Bremmer agreed with the Biden team’s decision to withdraw the last U.S. troops in Afghanistan after 20 years of war there, but says their implementation of that decision has been a mess, in particular the lack of coordination with European allies. “I've heard the Biden advisers tell me that this was going to be an ugly baby any way we did it,” he said. “And my response to them has been: ‘If you knew it was going to be an ugly baby, why were you so committed to raising it by yourself?’” In the past, Sullivan has evaded blame for other blunders he’s been a part of — most notably HILLARY CLINTON’s losing 2016 presidential campaign, where he was a senior adviser. But the Biden administration’s withdrawal from Afghanistan has prompted rare murmurs of dissent aimed at Sullivan. Last week, former Obama State Department official BRETT BRUEN wrote a USA Today op-ed calling for Biden to shake up his national security team, singling out Sullivan in particular. “While he knows all the theories and academic arguments in foreign policy, his overseas experience is less robust. It can lead to the disconnect between ideas and implementation,” Bruen wrote, a line that circulated in some foreign policy circles. Bruen can prompt eye rolls from Democrats, who see him as media-hungry, but not everyone disagreed with his point that Sullivan may be a 2021 version of “The Best and the Brightest.” “Constitutionally, he's very well suited for high pressure situations, but he's not tested — you don't get tested by being the head of policy planning in the State Department,” a senior Defense department official in the Obama administration said, referring to Sullivan’s past role working for Clinton when she was secretary of State. An anonymous Democratic member of Congress told The New York Times over the weekend that a handful of Democrats were discussing whether Sullivan’s resignation would help “reset the narrative,” a fact that caught the White House’s attention, according to administration officials. Despite such criticism, there is no sign that Biden has lost confidence in Sullivan. He continues to be the White House’s go-to messenger on Afghanistan — appearing at the briefing room on Monday, the second time since Kabul fell to the Taliban — and some of Sullivan’s defenders say that he is simply executing the president’s policy which, the White House is quick to argue, is popular with voters. Sullivan is right to be a traitor to "the blob,” his defenders say. “The blob is trying to absolve themselves of failure and not telling the truth about this war the last twenty years and pin it all on someone, anyone, including Jake Sullivan,” said Duss, who remains a foreign policy adviser to Sanders. “My boss has said that Biden had a lot of courage to make this decision and that applies to Jake as well.” Do you work in the Biden administration? Are you in touch with the White House? Are you NICOLE ORPHANIDES? We want to hear from you — and we’ll keep you anonymous: westwingtips@politico.com. Or if you want to stay really anonymous send us a tip through SecureDrop, Signal, Telegram, or Whatsapp here. | 
