George Will says conservatives will not go silently into the night if Donald Trump wins the Republican presidential nomination.

The conservative columnist said on Hugh Hewitt’s radio show Tuesday that if the GOP nominates Trump, he and other conservatives will likely defect and support a conservative third party candidate.

[dcquiz] “[Y]ou would have to also figure that there would be movement to have a third party candidate because if the election is Hillary Clinton against Donald Trump, this will be the first election since God knows when there was no real conservative candidate,” Will said. “And I don’t think those of us who started our political careers — and I cast my vote for Barry Goldwater, who valued that classic, creative defeat of his because he took the Republican Party and said, ‘henceforth it will be a conservative party.'”

“Those of us who feel that way are not about to sit idly and see the Republican Party — which was saved by William Howard Taft in 1912 for conservatism, that was reclaimed by Barry Goldwater in 1964 for conservatism — we’re not going to let it disappear in 2016.”

Other prominent conservatives have indicated they would not support Trump if he is the Republican nominee. Like Will, Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol has also discussed the possibility of getting behind a conservative third party candidate if Trump wins the GOP nomination.

Follow Jamie on Twitter