If I tell a fat person that they're fat, and they are, they can perceive that I'm being a jerk, but they're still fat, and my statement is still objectively true. The perception of the truth being spoken by me as negative comes from the receiver--it's their issue with the statement that attaches emotion, not mine.

Remove context from his statement and surrogate anything we have objective knowledge of (e.g. housing market 2009) and the statement morphs from "arrogant prediction and condescension" to an appropriate comment on reality.