Why reward Ayotte with a plum job like Defense when a loyalist like Mike Flynn could have it instead? Another deeply weird angle here: Unlike Trump, Ayotte is an outspoken hawk. She became the “third amigo” in the John McCain/Lindsey Graham “interventionism forever” camp in the Senate. She’s also been aggressive in the past in criticizing Trump’s friends in Russia and in calling for harsher sanctions on them. Flynn is famously friendly to Russia.