In Laravel, when you use implicit route model binding, Laravel will automatically fetch the model instance that corresponds to the route parameter.

use App\Models\User;

Route::get('/users/{user}', function (User $user) {
    return $user->email;
});

use App\Models\User;

Route::get('/users/{user}', function (User $user) {
    return $user->email;
});

If you visit /users/5, Laravel will do something like:

$user = User::findOrFail(5);

$user = User::findOrFail(5);

and then pass that $user to your closure.

Now, about Soft Deletes

• If a model uses the SoftDeletes trait, it isn’t actually removed from the database when you call $user->delete().
• Instead, its deleted_at column gets filled with a timestamp.
• By default, Laravel excludes soft deleted rows from queries like find() or first().

So if a User with ID 5 is soft deleted, /users/5 will normally give you a 404 Not Found, because Laravel won’t include trashed models in the binding query.

Using withTrashed()

When you add:

Route::get('/users/{user}', function (User $user) {
    return $user->email;
})->withTrashed();

Route::get('/users/{user}', function (User $user) {
    return $user->email;
})->withTrashed();

You’re telling Laravel:

“When performing route model binding for this route, also include soft-deleted (trashed) models.”

So now:

• If /users/5 refers to a soft-deleted user, Laravel will still retrieve it and pass it into the route closure.
• Without withTrashed(), the same request would throw a 404.

✅ In short:

• Normal binding ignores trashed models.
• withTrashed() allows binding to include trashed models as well.