This is very true - I have seen it in many clients. Their refunds are down, because their withholdings are down. I have had to explain this to most of my clients so far. When you show them they earned more money and actually their Total Tax is down resulting in a lower refund, but their withholding is also down, they have a different tone:
Fact Check: Democrats Are Misleading Americans About Their Tax Refunds
FTA:
The smaller refund checks, however, were not indicators that taxes have gone up. In fact, two-thirds of American households got a tax cut this year. For middle-class families with children, over 80 percent got tax cuts.
A smaller refund check merely indicates that early tax-filers overpaid their taxes by a smaller amount throughout the year. In other words, taxpayers kept more of the money they earned — that is, money they did not owe to the federal government.
I think that PDJT (and I) thought that the increase in people’s take-home pay would have led more to vote Republican in the mid-terms. This did not seem to work out. Now these same LIV’s are mad at POTUS because their refund is smaller.