Texas oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens wasted no time wading into national politics on Tuesday at a University of North Texas lunch event.

"I am so into this election," he said as soon as he took the stage at the Hilton Anatole Dallas. "I wanted to ask everybody in here, could they vote for Donald Trump?"

A few scattered hands went up, some tentatively.

Moderator G. Brint Ryan, chairman and CEO of Ryan LLC, cajoled a few more, quipping, "There are no cameras in the room."

Pickens shrugged it off before launching into a wide-ranging discussion.

The almost 88-year-old billionaire has said he's backing the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, citing Trump's potential to change Washington and apparent willingness to protect the U.S.'s energy interests abroad, particularly in the Middle East.

On Tuesday, Pickens vowed to "remind people how little Hillary Clinton understands about energy."

"She said we're going to shut down coal production ... and stop using fossil fuels," he said, referring to a widely criticized comment the Democratic presidential candidate made about putting coal mining companies out of business. "How could you stop that? You'd stop the world."

Pickens added that "boy, I loved it when she was over in West Virginia," a state where coal is the dominant industry.

Clinton has since described the comment as a "misstatement."

Pickens predicted oil prices will reach $50 to $60 per barrel by the end of the year and $70 next year.

He also claimed to have been the first Caesarean section birth in Oklahoma and joked that the first Republican presidential candidate he ever voted for was Abraham Lincoln. (It was actually Thomas Dewey, who was narrowly defeated by incumbent Harry S. Truman in 1948.)

Twitter: @jillcowan