President Trump offered rare praise for MSNBC anchor Rachel Maddow after she highlighted the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers's effort to respond to the outbreak of the coronavirus.

"Thank you to Rachel @Maddow for putting our Military on full display, and showing how GREAT a job the Federal Government is doing," Trump tweeted Friday. "Also, a special thanks to General Semonite, a Patriot of the highest order and a truly talented engineer and builder!"





Maddow brought Gen. Todd Semonite, commanding general for the corps, on her show Thursday to discuss how the federal government is creating makeshift hospitals in key regions of the country and providing support to people affected by the virus.

"You heard in that clip where a lot of governors said we've gotta be able to build hospitals in a couple of weeks. You can't build a hospital in a couple of weeks," Semonite said. "And the whole goal of what we're trying to do is to go into an existing facility ... and therefore modify it to be able to take care of that shortage."

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Health officials in major U.S. cities have warned that they are reaching capacity with patients sick with COVID-19. Trump this week announced USNS Comfort would be departing Virginia this weekend on its way to New York City to serve as a floating hospital for COVID-19 patients.

“It’s an incredible piece of work. It’ll be landing at Pier 90 in Manhattan to provide hospital surge capacity for the New York metropolitan area,” Trump said.

Maddow is frequently critical of Trump and his policies, saying this week his daily press briefings about the virus should not be broadcast because of the "misinformation" she says Trump is spreading.

"If the president does end up saying anything true, you can run it as tape. But if he keeps lying like he has been every day on stuff this important, all of us should stop broadcasting it," she said. "Honestly, it’s going to cost lives,”

On Thursday, Maddow thanked Semonite and the service members he leads for such a rapid response to a nationwide pandemic that has led to more than 1,000 deaths in the United States as of Saturday morning.

"Thank you for speaking about this with such clarity," Maddow said. "Thank you for speaking and moving quickly. It inspires confidence, sir."