Conservatives need to rid themselves of the "awful presence" of progressives, but first it has to rid itself of President Donald Trump, according to Pulitzer Prize-winning author George Will.

"There will be younger writers and younger politicians, and we'll have a genuine fight to see what comes next," Will told The Daily Beast. "There are signs of intelligent life in Congress, which knows it has delegated its job to presidents who will not always be progressives.

"But first, we have to clear the ground and remove this awful presence from our lives."

Will, a NeverTrump conservative, says the conservative moment is under attack from progressives and Trump-era Republicans. He is apparently willing to give ground to a progressive president in 2020 to first get rid of the Republican president.

"Frankly, one of the reasons I wanted to write this book was to provide a useful work for conservatives when they return from being a cult of personality to being a political party," Will told the Beast.

Seeking to not talk about the president he does not view as a conservative, Will proceeded to start his Q&A with the Beast by, of course, talking about President Donald Trump – completely unprompted to do so.

"I spend most of my time trying to avoid talking about Donald Trump," Will told the Beast, responding to the first question that did not mention the president. "I wrote 'The Conservative Sensibility,' in which his name does not appear, and every time I go on television the host says, 'I see Trump is not mentioned in your book. Let's talk about Trump.'"