Solution:
Use raw
statement instead. For example:
$user = User::select(DB::raw('count(*) as user_count, status'))->where('status', '=', 'active');
By the way actually, Laravel has mutator for field with DateTime type. So you can select it as normal and format it later. Example;
$user = User::find(2);
$date = $user->created_at->format('d M Y'); // you can display it with any format you want with this way.
More information read the official documentation and this