The thing about the projection is I think it's less so planned and more like a self fulfilling prophecy.

It is planned though. While you can't say definitively that any given statement has a plan, projection is a prominent and extremely effective post-modern propaganda strategy. You prime people to ignore serious accusations against you by making those accusations against others first, so the population habituates to claims of wrongdoing and don't really pay attention anymore. It all just sounds like poo-flinging and political posturing. It's like how, if a child does something wrong to another child and is quick, they'll run to the adults and claim the other kid did that same thing first. "Nu uh, SHE hit ME!" sounds pretty unconvincing, and the adults are primed to take the first kid's word for it, because the second kid is just following the first kid's lead, but badly. Thing is, facts are fixed: if child #1 hit child #2 but child #1 disarms that allegation, child #2 claiming that child #1 stole their ice cream instead isn't likely to work, since it didn't happen. Throwing out lies because the truth didn't work rarely ends well, and while children may not think that hard about it, political schemers sure do.

A projection strategy disarms the truth, since the horrible act they actually committed is specific, so if they can disarm that specific allegation, they've cut of the opposition at the knees. It uses truth as a weapon. Always make sure the specific thing you are actually doing is the specific thing the population disbelieves. You will defend yourself with actual facts if the opposition tries to pin something false on you instead, but can remain silent if they press the truth because that's the exact truth the population doesn't pay attention to. It's a win-win scenario, the population starts to believe your random unsubstantiated lie is equivalent to a truthful allegation. The harder you scream about your opponents doing exactly what you are doing, the less people will believe your opponents about it.